


The Scenic Route

by Inquartata (mackillian)



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: (because this thing needed another trope obviously), (in the epilogue), Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Everyone Is Alive, F/F, Fake Marriage, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Idiots in Love, Interrupted Love Confessions, Make Out To Look Casual, Mutual Pining, No Reaper AU, Prompt Fic, Romance, Sharing a Bed, Shut Up Kiss, Soulmates, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, Unplanned Pregnancy, Use Your Words, flimsy premise, oh my god they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-01-15 06:48:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 72,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21249179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackillian/pseuds/Inquartata
Summary: Thaia and Lexi take an unplanned vacation to the Terminus Systems. What could possibly go wrong? A Fictober fic with All The Prompts and a great big handful of tropes for good measure.





	1. Interchange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
28\. “Enough! I heard enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set in a no-Reaper/no Andromeda Initiative AU in the Milky Way Galaxy. Thaia stayed a commando instead of leaving the militia to become an engineer. Lexi is a physician working at a hospital on the Citadel. And everyone's alive!

**Lusia, 2210.**

In retrospect, answering a call on her omni-tool while in the middle of a bar fight hadn’t been one of Thaia’s best ideas. But the caller was Lexi. And Thaia, unless her commando squad was on a mission that forbade it, would _always_ answer Lexi’s calls. Since her squad had just finished up a major training operation and were currently celebrating its successful completion in a local bar, Thaia was free to answer the call.

In a manner of speaking.

“Hey, Lexi!” Thaia said with a grin because she couldn’t _not_ smile when she saw those lovely grey eyes of her favorite friend. “Good to see you!”

From the holoprojection on Thaia’s omni-tool, Lexi returned the smile in full. “It’s good to see you as well. I’ve found myself—”

Out of the corner of her eye, Thaia noticed a stool headed right for her face. “Hold on.” She dived beneath a large circular table, ignoring her clothes sticking to the wood plank flooring when she low-crawled to the middle. “So what was it you were saying?” she asked, staying low and bringing her omni closer to her face so she could hear Lexi better over the noise.

Lexi tilted her head to the side. “Are you in a bar fight right now?”

“Um.” Thaia briefly glanced out from under the table. Good, no one had noticed yet. She scurried back to her hiding spot. “I’m under one. Technically. It’s fine.”

“You realize this is at least the fifth time in the past year you’ve been in a bar fight? And, in the previous year, you were in seven?”

Thaia shrugged, also neglecting to tell Lexi that seven was on the low side of average bar fights Lucen’s Guides got into per year. “Look, we celebrate how we celebrate. No one’s using biotics yet, so we’re fine. I’m fine. What were you going to say?”

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re trying to earn yourself another scar.”

“You _like_ my scars.” Before Lexi could reply, Thaia flinched when a body slammed into the table above her. Luckily, the frame held. A commando’s boots—filthy ones, so they were Kiana’s—stomped over. Then Kiana yanked the grumbling turian off the table and chucked him in the other direction. 

“That sounded close,” Lexi said with a hint of worry. She even shifted to try to look in the direction of the immediate commotion.

“Literally directly over me, but Shoes has it under control.”

“Kiana shouldn’t be in a bar fight, either. In fact, all of you should stop fighting in bars.”

“That’s like asking us not to swear.” In Thaia’s opinion, an opinion shared amongst most commandos, not breathing would be easier than not swearing.

“Goddess forbid any of you stop cursing.”

“_Kurinth_ doesn’t forbid swearing. The goddess of hunting swore better than anyone.”

Lexi opened her mouth, but was cut off by a couple loud thumps followed by an angry shout from Rosava.

Thaia’s muscles tensed, readying to go back out to help her squadmates, but first she needed to hear what Lexi had to tell her. “Okay, whatever you called to say, you’d better say it. My squad needs their best brawler to not be hiding under a table like a salarian in a restaurant crammed wall-to-wall with hungry krogan.” 

“I was going to tell you,” Lexi said after a soft laugh, “that I’m on an unexpected week-long break from work due to some urgent remodeling in the hospital. I’m not sure what to do with myself.”

A chance to spend time with Lexi when she didn’t have hospital shifts! There was no fucking way Thaia wouldn’t find a way to make this rare of an opportunity work. She straightened as excitement bubbled up into her chest and subsequently banged her head on the table. “_Fuck_, ow.” Rubbing at the sore spot on her crest, she rushed to talk before Lexi’s resumed look of concern could become actual verbal scolding. “I’ll come up with something, because we both know that if you’re left idle for a day, much less a whole fucking week, you’ll cure some previously incurable disease, which isn’t fair. You have to leave _something_ for the other doctors to cure.”

Thaia’s first idea was solid. They could attend the second half of a literary conference featuring krogan writers and poets who were part of the current krogan renaissance. The second half was the best part anyway because there were supposed to be debates—both asari _and_ krogan-style debates. She hadn’t gone to a debate in a while and how the fuck had she not brought Lexi to a debate before? Well, time to fix that oversight. Passes would be easy for her to get, so no problem there. However, it wasn’t for a few more days, so she weighed the possibilities of her second, still nebulous idea. If she could manage to put everything in place, they could do that for the first half of the week and then the conference for the other.

“Setting aside your overestimation of my abilities,” said Lexi, “what would you suggest?”

Thaia grinned. “I’ve got an idea.”

“I hope it isn’t more bar fights.”

“Not in the plan, no, but plans are always subject to change due to external influences.” However, her second plan _was_ coalescing into something doable, provided she got this bar fight over with quickly.

A roar heralded the crack of a body’s impact on the table above her, which then snapped under the krogan’s weight. Flat on the floor under the wreckage of the table, Thaia’s hasty biotic barrier followed by throwing the krogan a safe distance away prevented any real harm. Though she was pretty sure something had glanced off her head, nothing hurt.

She shoved the larger pieces of table off her legs and torso and sat up. 

“Are you bleeding?” Lexi asked from their still active call, her holo partly blocked by a scrap of wood.

“Here, you tell me.” Thaia retrieved her arm from the wood pile and then angled her omni to let Lexi get a better look at the top of her head.

“You are. Of course you are.” Lexi sighed. “Please make sure you get that looked at by a medical professional.”

“You just looked at it and, last I checked, you’re a medical professional.”

“Thaia, while I’m good at my job, I can’t provide medical care from another _cluster_.”

“Not yet, anyway.”

“We need to have a talk about you and your lack of a relationship with the fascinating concept of realistic expectations.”

“Or maybe you should stop underestimating your skills. Either way, now you get to see something better than an action vid!”

Thaia leapt to her feet, dust and a few remaining slivers of table floating to the floor, and charged over to the dark green headplated krogan who’d almost crushed her. With his attention on swinging his fists at Shirin, he didn’t see Thaia run up from behind. Thaia grabbed him by the collar around his hump, hauled him backwards, and tossed him into the window with a mighty crash.

_Out_ the window, shattering it in the process because it was real glass.

Shit, settling today’s bill was going to be costly.

“Is your comm live?” Shirin asked as Thaia helped her up and steadied her. After Thaia nodded, Shirin waved in the omni’s direction. “Hi, Lexi! How are you?”

“I’m well, yet concerned about if you or anyone else there can say the same.”

Shirin scanned the ruckus in the bar before smiling at Lexi. “I’m good! So are the Guides. Can’t say the same about the guy Dash just threw out the window, though.”

“He’s krogan,” Thaia said, elbowing and then launching the human who’d tried to sneak up on her into a rectangular table on the opposite side of the room. “It’ll take more than a little glass to put a scratch in his hide.” She glanced toward the window, shards of glass clinging to the frame like crooked teeth. “But, if you want, we can go make sure he regrets fucking with us.”

“_No_,” said Lexi. Even raised her voice a bit.

“Is that Lexi?” Rosava yelled from where she’d pinned a salarian to the floor in a secure wrestling hold, his face pressed into the ground. “Give me a sec and I’ll come say hi! I just need to make this one tap out first!”

The salarian struggled to lift his head. “If you think I’m going to give up then you’ve—”

Arms twisting ever so slightly, Rosava tightened her hold.

The salarian howled in pain.

“Is he okay?” asked Lexi.

“He’ll be fine,” said Thaia. “The captain hasn’t done anything to him that’ll cause permanent injury.”

“Yet!” Nawra, their sniper, shouted over her shoulder, then quickly returned her attention to dragging a pair of turians by their collars to the middle of the room and slinging them onto a pile of other dazed combatants.

“Okay! Okay!” said the salarian. “You win! Just let me go!” 

Rosava let up and the salarian bolted out the door in a tan blur.

After shaking her head at the fleeing salarian, Rosava turned toward Thaia. Her words, however, were for Lexi. “I promise that everyone on the squad is”—she paused and reconsidered when she noticed Thaia—“_mostly_ unharmed. Goddess, Kallistrate, really?”

“I’m fine.” Then Thaia caught the towel Ovadia, their new medic, hurled at her. “What do you want me to do with this?” For emphasis, Thaia shook the towel in Ovadia’s direction. 

“Put it on your _head_, I imagine,” Lexi answered for her.

Ovadia nodded and pointed at Lexi’s holo. “Listen to your bondmate!”

“She’s not my—” A second barstool flew past Thaia’s face, only a scale’s width away from her nose. Close enough that she felt the air it displaced on its way by. 

Thaia glared first at the stool and then the bearded human who’d thrown it.

Who set his legs, cracked his knuckles, and gestured for her to bring it.

She threw the towel onto the floor and rolled her shoulders. She sure as fuck _would _or her name wasn’t Althaia Kallistrate.

But her revenge was stopped in its tracks when Nawra brought a chair down on the unaware human. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to get back up in the near future, she crouched and checked his pulse. Then she waved in Thaia’s direction. “Tell Lexi I said hi! And that this guy isn’t dead. Just more dazed than his partners over there. Who are also not dead.”

Lexi sighed.

“Don’t be like that!” said Shirin, favoring her left leg as she walked toward Thaia. “You know you love us, Doc!”

“_I_ don’t!” said the bar’s proprietor, face flushed indigo as she ran from where she’d hidden in a back room. “And if you haven’t paid up on your drinks, the damages, _and_ gotten your asses gone in one minute, I’m calling the cops.”

Rosava stayed behind to settle their extensive tab while the rest of the squad stumbled their way out into the damp Lusia night. 

They found Arunhati, the Guides’ former subcaptain who now commanded the squad they’d partnered with for the training exercise, lounging against a skycar, arms folded over her chest while she gave them all a smug look. “I thought this might happen.”

“Far be it from us to disappoint,” said Thaia.

Arun looked like she was going to reply, but then Thaia’s active comm stole her attention. “Are _you_ the Lexi we’ve been hearing so much about?”

“Thaia,” Lexi said slowly, “what have you been telling them?”

Thaia’s asshole squadmates, including her asshole former squadmate, began shouting out each and every thing Thaia had said about Lexi, which had been a lot and effusive in all its abundance and it had been a long three months in the field and apparently Thaia talked a lot. And every bit of it had been about Lexi and she hadn’t realized it until just now.

Fuck.

Thaia spun in a circle and gestured vaguely at everyone. “As you can see,” she said, practically shouting to be heard, “everyone’s fine. Give me a few hours and I’ll get back to you about my idea.”

“All right,” Lexi said, not sounding entirely convinced, but accepted it so it’d do. Then she addressed the entire group. “I hope to see you all again soon. And _well_.”

“Bye, Lexi!” the squad chorused.

Right after Thaia cut the comm, the bar’s door opened and Rosava walked through. “Time to pay up,” she said to her squad, already typing into her omni when she reached where they’d gathered beside the skycar. “We racked up quite the bill tonight. Good job. And now I’m sending you each your responsibility for it.”

“Are we still off assignment for the next month?” Thaia asked.

Rosava raised a brow. “Yes, why?”

“I’d like to take a week’s leave starting…” Thaia trailed off and checked the departures at Monoi’s spaceport. With Lusia only a single relay hop from the Citadel, chances were there was something she could secure a seat on—and there were several viable options. “Now, basically.” Since she had her omni open, she went ahead and sent the credits for her fair share of the tab.

“No problem,” Rosava said with a nod. “We’ll be in garrison on Thessia and have nothing pressing in the meantime. Will you be within comms range if I need to recall you?”

“There’s no reason why I wouldn’t be.” Her current selection of the trip’s ultimate travel destination might be in the Terminus Systems, but even the Terminus had comm buoys. 

“Have yourself a nice trip to see Lexi, then. Tell her hello for me.”

Already in the middle of booking a seat on the next transport to the Citadel, a regular volus-run passenger service out of Monoi, Thaia barely registered Rosava’s words. With the first leg of the journey out of the way, she needed to find transportation for the rest of the trip. Last time she’d rented a shuttle, things had gone badly and she could’ve bought the thing twice over once all the damages were paid. A cheap, yet space-worthy shuttle big enough for two people would do. It wouldn’t be that long of a trip. 

In theory. 

And Thaia knew just the person to ask. She opened up the comm window and sent off her first message to Nef.

> You wouldn’t happen to know where I could get a cheap shuttle that’s still space-worthy, would you?

“What are you doing?” Kiana asked from behind her.

“Getting a shuttle.” 

Shirin edged closer and peered over Thaia’s shoulder. “Getting one to the Citadel?”

“No, hopping on a transport for that. The shuttle’s for the trip after.”

A reply from Nef appeared.

> _As a matter of fact, I’ve just come into such a shuttle._

Even via text, Thaia could hear the uncanny reasonableness of Nef’s voice. Uncanny, because no matter what Nef said, it always sounded reasonable. So it stood that buying a used shuttle off Nef was a perfectly reasonable thing to do no matter how almost suspiciously convenient it appeared to be.

“The what?” Shirin moved even closer.

Thaia elbowed her for space enough to think and reply to Nef. “Shove off. I’m trying to concentrate.” Sometimes, her squad was worse than all her sisters combined. Sure, they followed her orders when in the field, but when they were off duty, it was a crapshoot. 

With breathing room regained, Thaia replied to Nef.

> How much? And how soon can I get it?

When she saw the price Nef sent over, Thaia narrowed her eyes. It was high enough that it was like Nef had ignored what she’d said.

> I said _cheap_, T’Sein.

> _It’s a steal for that model. Hold on, I’ll send you the specs._

Reading the specs did shit to quell Thaia’s suspicion because a shuttle with those specs should be selling for higher than Nef’s asking price. Unless said shuttle couldn’t escape a planet’s atmosphere. Or had a huge fucking hole in the hull. Or was missing an entire engine.

> Did you not see the space-worthy requirement?

> _I wouldn’t sell you something you didn’t ask for._

Okay, so space-worthy and cheap, and if she could get her hands on it within the next day, she could overlook whatever other problematic thing that’d dragged down the shuttle’s price. After the trip, Thaia could resell it. Even if she sold it for scrap, she could recoup half of what she’d spend now. And she was sure Nef wouldn’t leave her stranded somewhere between the Attican Traverse and the Terminus Systems.

Mostly sure.

Somewhat sure.

Sure enough to be worth the risk.

> _So are you buying or not? I have a date._

> If I can get it today, it’s a deal. 

> _The shuttle’s on the Citadel right now. I’ll leave it in a docking ring berth and send you the non-transferable codes for it once you send me the credits. Are you going somewhere in a hurry?_

> Going on an adventure with a friend.

Stomach fluttery about the trip, Thaia moved the credits to an escrow account and sent Nef the access number. With that, Nef could verify that it was the full amount, which Thaia would release once she verified that Nef wasn’t fucking around with her about the shuttle.

Moments after, the codes arrived from Nef, as did her parting message.

> _Have a nice trip. Say hi to Lexi for me._

Thaia didn’t wonder _if_ she should’ve been suspicious about Nef name-dropping Lexi, she wondered _how_ suspicious she should’ve been because she couldn’t recall ever mentioning Lexi to Nef.

But Rosava asking, “You didn’t rent one again, did you?” from directly behind her, making her almost jump out of her fucking skin, negated any further thoughts dedicated to Nef.

“No,” Thaia said, turning to face Rosava and willing her heart rate to slow. Maybe Rosava had been a commando for over half a millennium, but it was still unfair how fucking sneaky she was. Without even trying. Ever. “I could’ve bought a recent, practically pristine shuttle at market value for how much I had to pay for the damage to the last one. Might as well front the credits now and possibly recoup some money by selling it later rather than losing even more money by paying for a rental’s total loss.”

“So you bought a whole-ass shuttle?” asked Nawra.

“Because it made the most financial—”

“The health of your bank account has nothing to do with the point we’re trying to make here,” said Kiana.

“What do you mean?” Thaia scowled and shifted her weight from foot to foot. She’d missed a point somewhere, which rankled the fuck out of her.

Shirin, now leaning on the skycar next to Arun, didn’t bother to stifle her laugh. “Dash,” she said, gesturing to her omni, “you go to the Citadel to visit Lexi whenever you have leave. I know for a fact that you have the security access codes to her place because you always stay there. And—”

“She works a lot and I wouldn’t be able to see her enough if I didn’t stay there.”

“And when we’re all on the Citadel, you don’t go out with us to the bars and clubs anymore and you haven’t had a one or two-night stand for two fucking years.”

Thaia didn’t think it was this hard to understand. “Why would I, though? It’s more fun to be with Lexi.”

Arun covered her face with her hand.

Shirin kept going. “Thaia, you fucking bought a shuttle just so you can bring her on one of your harebrained adventures.”

“Because it’s the more cost-effective option and I can—”

“And you have the tits to stand here and say that you _aren’t_ in a relationship with her?”

Thaia crossed her arms. “We’re friends. Best friends.”

“Goddess give me strength.” Shirin took a deep breath. “You’re an idiot and you’re in love with her. Now that it’s been said out-fucking-loud, how about I save everyone the trouble and tell Lexi for you?”

Kiana darted between her and Thaia. “Let me do it!”

“No, no, let me,” said Nawra, pushing Kiana aside. “I’d be nicer.”

Rosava smiled in a way that was somehow simultaneously reassuring and worrisome. “After these past three months listening to Thaia wax poetic about Lexi? I’m sure our entire squad would be happy to.”

“Mine, too,” said Arun.

Ovadia sighed as she finished up scanning Shirin’s leg and then looked at Thaia. Sounding like someone had done something mean to her beloved etalis, she said, “I really thought she was your bondmate.” Coupled with the big brown eyes under fresh full commando tattoos, Thaia _almost_ felt bad.

“Not yet, Slowburn,” said Kiana.

Thaia no longer felt almost bad.

“Oh, that’s fucking perfect for her callsign,” said Nawra. “Every time Dash hears it or says it, she’ll be reminded of how much of a fucking dumbass she—”

“Enough!” Thaia threw her arms in the air. “I’ve heard enough! _Goddess_.” She didn’t have time for her squad’s shit. She needed to collect her belongings and get her ass to the spaceport. Thankfully, she’d showered before heading to the bar with her squad, so that was out of the way.

“You haven’t heard enough until you fucking admit that you and the hot doctor have something going on between you,” said Shirin.

“It’s called friendship,” Thaia said, trying to decide if running back to the barracks would be faster than calling a skycar. Maybe call for a skycar, arrange to have it meet her at the barracks, and then sprint her ass to said barracks to beat it there.

“We’re friends and you never look at me like you do her,” said Kiana. “And I definitely don’t look at you like Lexi does. In closing, you should do each other and you’ll both be happier.”

Thaia rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I need to get going. I told her I’d be at the Citadel in a few hours.”

“Did you say a few hours? Seriously?” asked Ovadia.

“That’s what you get when somebody’s in love,” said Kiana.

“Like our esteemed subcaptain,” said Nawra.

“Fuck _off_,” said Thaia.

Laughing, Arun chucked a thumb in the direction of the skycar. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride. We need to catch up on me giving you shit. Did you really think you’d escape it when I left?”

“I’d fucking hoped.” Thaia was still going to accept the ride, though. A lift from Arun was her best bet on getting to the spaceport in time.

“Wait!” Ovadia held up her medkit, the case somehow still in pristine condition despite three fucking months in the field. “What about your head? There’s still some bleeding.”

If Thaia had forgotten about it, couldn’t be that bad, in her opinion. “Just slap a medigel bandage on it. It’ll heal.”

“What if it scars?”

Thaia grinned. “Worth it.” She got as far as opening the skycar door and Arun halfway to the driver’s side before getting stopped again.

“Wait, the Citadel?” asked Rosava. “Thaia, exactly how are you planning to get through C-Sec? You’ve still got three years to go before they’ll let you in unescorted by a qualified sponsor, such as your commanding officer, a relative, or an embassy representative. I can’t be there, I can’t designate another captain who happens to be there that quickly, and the embassy won’t sponsor you for two more years. Is someone from your family there?”

Thaia’s shoulders slumped as her hopes crashed. “No. Shit. Wait!” She straightened up, solution in sight. “I could just stay on the docks!”

“You could, but if you’re taking a commercial transport, those disembark on a separate docking ring from private transports.”

“Fuck.” Until she could get into the Citadel, her shuttle was going to be stuck there, completely fucking useless, and she wasn’t going to buy a _second_ one. 

Oh, she had a big family. Maybe they would come in handy for once. 

She proceeded to feverishly message all of them.

Within five minutes, everyone except Meir reported back that they weren’t on the Citadel. Meir didn’t reply at all.

“_Fuck._ No one’s there and Lexi isn’t going to have another break like this in a long time.” She kept talking, trying to fill the sudden hollowness in her chest when she realized just how much she’d looked forward to this. She hadn’t seen Lexi in three solid months, and they could’ve spent time together when neither of them had work in the way, but now it might not even happen because she’d done something stupid two years ago.

But if she hadn’t done the stupid thing two years ago, she wouldn’t have met Lexi.

Thaia’s hopes dwindled, taking her heart with them. “Do you know how busy doctors are during residencies? Sure, we get to visit whenever I’m on leave and stay with her on the Citadel, but she still has to work her shifts and I’m either causing trouble in the Wards or slowly getting bored in her apartment. And it’s been three months since we’ve even seen each other! Now we can finally be on leave _together_ and now we’ll lose out on the trip because I—”

Rosava put her hands on Thaia’s shoulders. “Calm down. We’ll figure this out.”

“Wait,” said Arun. “I’ve got it! My squad’s priestess. She’s back at the barracks with the rest of them. Let’s go!”

“How’s that help?” asked Nawra. “Is she going to pray that Dash’s Citadel restrictions have been lifted?”

Arun grabbed Thaia by the arm. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll explain on the way.”

Thaia wasn’t entirely certain how she’d ended up in the barracks and surrounded by two full commando squads, but she was fairly certain it involved pushing, shoving, carrying, and a skycar or three.

And now she was trying to comprehend Arun’s idea.

Which was difficult because it was incomprehensible, even to a veteran planner of wild adventures like Thaia.

Maybe she needed to be drunk to understand. The bar fight had started in earnest before she’d gotten anywhere in the vicinity of drunk, which meant she was sober as fuck.

And confused.

“You’re saying I should _bond_ with Lexi so I can get onto the Citadel?”

“Essentially.” Arun gestured at the person from her squad stepping forward. “Ragna’s a priestess. She can get this done all nice and legal in five minutes.”

Mouth partway open, Thaia looked from Arun to Ragna. “And you’re okay with a fake bonding?”

“Oh, no. It would be real,” Ragna answered in a pleasantly soothing voice. “But it would be the shortest Republics bonding contract: ten years with the option for renewal or a longer contract at the end of the term.”

The fact that Thaia even remotely considered it should’ve been a warning sign.

And yet.

She really wanted to take this trip. With Lexi.

And a decade being sort-of-fake-sort-of real-bonded with her best friend wouldn’t be so bad. The opposite, really. Pretty damn good.

In total, she spent about two seconds mulling it over before declaring, “I’m in!”

Maybe she _was_ drunk.

“Lexi’ll be the hard sell. Unlike Dash, she’s got common sense,” said Shirin.

Thaia would’ve objected if it hadn’t been true. Though she would’ve said Lexi was _practical_ and left out the whole her not having common sense angle.

“We can do it if we all work together,” said Kiana. “Tevura’s guiding us, right?”

Ragna shrugged. “This is more Teleon’s specialty, but these things almost always start with Tevura. Let’s speak with Lexi and go from there.”

Rosava put a hand on Thaia’s forearm when she went to activate her omni. “One, we’ll make the call on my omni. Two, let Ragna do the talking unless you want the entire plan tanked by you saying three or more words.”

When the vid call connected, Rosava ended up doing the majority of the talking. A reasonable and logical explanation of Thaia’s current predicament regarding access to the Citadel and how there were no available guarantors this time around. Then Arun popped in with _so here’s my idea._ Then Ragna serenely explained how the bonding would work. Then the two commando squads offered their vocal support.

But even with everyone except Thaia having done the talking, Lexi’s reaction was to look directly at her, eyes accusatory—wait, no. Not accusatory. Bewildered?

“This was your plan? _Bonding_ with me?” 

She didn’t sound mad, not exactly. And nothing in her expression or body language indicated that she was pissed—eyes weren’t flinty, her words didn’t have the right icy cut to them, and she was fidgeting with a datapad instead of staying absolutely still.

However, Thaia’s defensiveness leapt into action, just in case. It had a lot of experience in self-preservation.

“No! We explained! It’s been added as an initial step to the plan. Step… um… three? Somewhere around there. Anyway, without this step there is no ‘rest of the plan.’ Just me being sad and you curing some previously incurable disease.”

For the longest five seconds in Thaia’s life, Lexi didn’t say a word.

Then, from within the group gathered around Thaia, Arun, and Ragna, came an enthusiastic shout from Kiana. “That’s not a no! Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!” chorused Nawra and several other commandos.

Ovadia clapped in celebration, dropping a gauze packet in the process. “Yes! This is the best!” She looked between Rosava and Arun, and then retrieved the gauze from the spotless barracks floor. “Is it always like this?”

“We’ve done a lot of wild shit, but this might be our first extranet marriage,” said Arun.

“I haven’t agreed yet,” said Lexi.

“Yet,” said Nawra.

“Still not a no,” said Kiana.

Lexi looked at Ragna. “How long? For the contract.”

“She asked how long!” said Ovadia. “That’s not a no!”

“Ten years,” said Ragna. “I have the blueprint for the temporary bracelets that can be flash forged on a standard omni-tool. I understand that we’re under some time constraints, so if your ‘it’s not a no’ will be ‘yes,’ then I need to send you the blueprint so you can get the temporary fabricated as soon as possible.”

Fiddling with the datapad again, Lexi looked over at Thaia. 

Thaia was pretty sure she saw a faint smile on Lexi’s lips. Enough where she could see it but no one else there knew Lexi well enough to. “I suppose a decade is tolerable. I admit, I am curious enough about your original plan that this would be worth doing in order to find out.”

Ragna smiled warmly. “Then let’s forge bracelets and get this underway.” After Nawra volunteered to fabricate the one on their end and Lexi started the process on hers, Ragna went on. “We’ll do the shortest version because I believe Thaia has a flight to catch?”

“Lift off in forty minutes.” Thaia shoved past the glut of commandos so she could round up her gear. As soon as the ceremony was done, she needed to _go_. She didn’t want to miss the fucking flight that’d take her to see Lexi in person.

“She means she’s looking forward to seeing you,” translated Rosava.

“I am!” Thaia shouted over her shoulder, double-checking the locks on her weapons case. “Which is why I don’t want to miss my flight!”

“It’s _adorable_!” said one of the older matrons from Arun’s squad. “She’s so excited!”

Ovadia practically squealed. 

“Wait,” said Lexi.

Thaia’s heart dropped.

She wasn’t sure why it did since this wasn’t an actual real bonding, but there it was.

Then Lexi said, “I have one condition.”

“If you ask me to stop telling bad jokes then the whole thing’s off,” said Thaia, hoping she came off as joking around and not freaked out about their sudden bonding plans falling through. Fake bonding plans. Fake but real bonding plans.

“I would never.” Lexi briefly put her hand to her chest in affront, but then gestured toward Ovadia. “But I would ask you to let your medic mend that cut on your crest. Properly mend. I know how you can be.”

“See,” said Arun, motioning for Ovadia to tend to Thaia, “this is a good match.”

It would be a small price to pay, Thaia figured. Not having another scar wasn’t the end of the world. However, time was still of utmost concern, not minor wounds. “I’d agree, but we don’t have the time. Flight leaves in”—Thaia checked her omni—“goddess, thirty-five minutes.”

“I’ll settle for you letting me mend it once we’re on the Citadel, then,” said Lexi.

Thaia looked over and nodded. “Deal.” Then she returned to collecting her belongings and carrying them to the door.

“Thaia, what about you?” Ragna asked. “Do you have any conditions for this bonding to take place?”

Most of her concentration on arranging her pack and cases by the exit, Thaia didn’t pay much attention to her answer. “No, Lexi’s perfect.”

Only when Thaia heard the uproarious laughter of her fellow commandos did she realize what she’d said. Shit.

“No takebacks, Kallistrate!” said Kiana.

“Are you sure you’re sober?” asked Nawra.

“If she isn’t, we aren’t doing this right now,” said Lexi.

“That wasn’t a no!” shouted Kiana.

“She’s sober,” said Rosava. “Thaia is, I mean. Kiana is… likely not.”

“Oh!” Ovadia raised her hand. “I can do a blood test!”

“We needn’t go that far. I believe Captain Rosava.” Lexi gave Ovadia an approving look. “But your enthusiasm and willingness to help is appreciated.”

“I’ve got the bracelet forged!” came Nawra’s shout.

“Thirty minutes,” said Arun. “If traffic’s bad, it’ll take a good twenty to get to the spaceport.” Corners of her eyes crinkling in amusement, she looked directly at Ragna. “You might need to skip to the end.”

“Fortunately, the quick version is essentially skipping to the end.” Ragna, her demeanor calm, confirmed that Lexi’s bracelet had also finished fabricating. Then called Thaia over. “Ready?” After they both nodded, Ragna turned to Lexi. “Lexi, do you wish to be bonded to Thaia?”

Lexi didn’t hesitate as she made direct eye contact with Thaia. “Yes.”

Thaia tried to suppress the sudden smile that emerged on her face but failed, even as she wondered why it’d appeared. This was a fake bonding. So she could get onto the Citadel. And then take her fake bondmate best friend on an awesome adventure. 

Okay, maybe all of those reasons were why.

“Thaia,” said Ragna, “do you wish to be bonded to Lexi?”

Goddess help her, she smiled more and Lexi might’ve too. Thaia decided not to think too much about it because she still couldn’t look away. “Yes.”

“In this version of the ceremony,” said Ragna, “you place the temporary bracelets on yourselves, and then once you meet the other again, you replace them with ones of manufacture durable enough to last ten years or beyond.”

While the light metal alloy was cool against the skin of Thaia’s right wrist, the bracelet itself felt natural sitting there.

Thaia decided not to think too deeply about what that meant, either.

Once Thaia and Lexi had the bracelets on, Ragna bestowed a smile on the both of them. “May you discover the very depths of each other’s souls, may you thrive as you find unity in one, and may it endure for as long as you wish. Before the eyes of your peers, your bonding is witnessed and created.”

Thaia pretended she didn’t have a big, dumb grin on her face. And that she didn’t see Lexi’s smile and flushed cheeks, either.

Then she didn’t have the time to pretend because Arun literally picked her up. and aimed her for the door. “Stop staring, Dash. You’ve got a transport to catch and we’re going to make sure you’re on it.” She addressed Lexi. “She’ll see you soon! I’ll send you the transport info because she’ll be napping.”

As Arun shoved her out the door, Thaia stole one last look at Lexi. “See you soon!”

It felt like maybe she should’ve said three other words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Full Fictober 2019 Prompt List](https://fictober-event.tumblr.com/post/187637998976/fictober-2019)
> 
> The Entirely Reasonable Nef T'Sein belongs to [skyllianhamster](https://skyllianhamster.tumblr.com)


	2. Toll Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
22\. “We could have a chance.”  
29\. “I’m doing this for you.”

**The Citadel, 2210.**

Like Arun had predicted, Thaia passed out on the transport from Lusia to the Citadel before it cleared atmo. She slept through the mass relay transition, which she hadn’t done in a solid fifty years, kept on sleeping until most of the passengers had disembarked onto the Citadel, and didn’t wake up until the crew started moving through the cabin, offering help to stragglers. Given the imprint of the seat’s upholstery pattern on her cheek, she might not’ve moved the whole time. Lusia’s fifty-hour days had really fucked with everyone’s sleep cycles. 

At least now she’d be well rested when she saw Lexi. Something that’d be maybe ten minutes from now if she moved her ass. 

Thaia scrubbed at her face and hauled herself up to fetch her carry-on pack.

When she tapped the panel to open the storage bin, the cabin’s bright overhead lighting glinted off the bracelet on her wrist.

Thaia stared at it.

_Right._

Then she smiled, which was perplexing as fuck because it wasn’t like it was real. Lexi was just her best friend and they’d gotten bonded so Thaia could get into the Citadel and pick up her shuttle and then take Lexi on an awesome trip. A trip that would be awesome because Lexi would be there, too.

She should probably stop thinking about it though because the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if maybe she didn’t have only best friend feelings for Lexi. But that was all she was _supposed_ to have because they’d agreed to be friends because Lexi was on a break from relationships and Thaia had been absolutely fine with that boundary.

Feelings were sneaky as fuck was what they were.

Also the bonding thing didn’t help with its own brand of mixed messaging even though Thaia knew it was supposed to be fake.

Supposed to be. Neither of them had been able to look away from the other, and now rested up and a few hours separated from that situation, Thaia realized it probably didn’t look as fake as it was supposed to as much as it didn’t feel as fake as it was supposed to.

And she should’ve paid more attention to what the priestess had said because she couldn’t remember _which_ type of bonding she’d officiated between Thaia and Lexi. It could’ve been the committed friendship one that brought with it zero expectations of sex as part of the unity between those being bonded, or it could’ve been one of the other types that pretty much shouted to everyone that the two people being bonded were going to bang at the soonest possible socially acceptable opportunity. 

She wondered how she could find that out without getting shit for not noticing. 

And what if it _was_ the second type?

Convincing herself it wouldn’t be a bad thing was especially difficult because when she thought about fulfilling those bonds with Lexi, a different kind of flush worked its way to her cheeks and—no, no, this was a fake thing and this was a terrible place and time for her mind to go there because she’d be seeing Lexi really, really soon. She didn’t need her imagination making it awkward.

Her smile didn’t fade. Fuck her, this was bad.

Thaia yanked her pack from the bin with too much force and it hit her in the face, rebounding her off the seat across the aisle.

“_Fuck._” She gingerly touched her nose with her free hand. No blood, so no explanation needed for Lexi about how she’d gotten a bloody nose while retrieving her fucking luggage from an overhead bin. After standing up and slinging her pack over her shoulder, she waved off the volus member of the in-flight crew heading for her in a slow, waddling gait. “I’m fine.”

“Then please gather your items and disembark, Thessia-clan,” wheezed the volus. “If you have any additional luggage, you will find it at the kiosk immediately next to the exit onto the docks.” He took a long breath. “Thank you for flying Bovis Tor Spacelines. We hope you consider us again for your civilian spacefaring needs.”

Thaia started up the aisle that was somehow as long as a regulation skyball field. “Yeah, yeah, I’m going.” 

Once outside the commercial transport terminal and onto the main docks, pack over a shoulder and rolling her large, hard-sided seabag behind her, Thaia headed straight for the nearest tourism kiosk. Every planet either already a tourist destination or aspirations of becoming a tourist destination stocked the kiosks found in every dock on the Citadel with brochure OSDs. If Thaia was going to make a successful pitch to Lexi about a trip to the Terminus Systems, she needed all the help she could get, including ready visual aids. Since the whole spontaneous bonding thing had probably used up any willingness of Lexi’s to go along with any of Thaia’s plans that were adventurous at best, Thaia grabbed all three of Aite’s OSDs and shoved them into the pocket of her militia’s casual uniform trousers.

A uniform she probably should’ve changed out of, she realized when she noticed a couple tears in her shirt. Too late now.

She walked toward the main thoroughfare leading to the nearest C-Sec checkpoint, only half paying attention to the crowd as she brought up her messages so she could let Lexi know she’d arrived. But when she glanced up to make sure she didn’t plow into anyone, Lexi was already standing right there. 

Lexi, whom Thaia hadn’t seen in three fucking months, waiting right there. Just a few meters away from her, for some reason still wearing her lab coat—not that Thaia minded because that coat hugged all of Lexi’s curves in the best ways—despite being on vacation, and a smile that went from faint to lighting up her face when Thaia made eye contact.

Thaia dropped her pack and her seabag and sprinted over, swooping Lexi up into a hug. It felt better than Thaia would ever admit to have her in her arms again, warm and solid and the aroma of Lexi’s irsaal-scented soap for once stronger than antiseptic from the hospital. And Lexi’s arms, wrapped around Thaia’s torso while she pressed her face into Thaia’s shoulder, might’ve been squeezing harder than Thaia’s own.

Lexi was muffled at first when she said, “Let me see you,” before stepping back just far enough to look up at Thaia. The bracelet on Lexi’s wrist caught the light as her hands moved up from Thaia’s shoulders to frame her face. Thaia might’ve seen Lexi glance at her lips more than once as Lexi checked her over. And Thaia might’ve done the same.

If Lexi ever kissed her, Thaia would kiss her back. She’d have done it just now. Even though this was supposed to be a fake thing. Even though they were just friends. _Best_ friends, but friends.

Then Lexi’s fingers reached the bandage on Thaia’s crest and a frown appeared, replacing her pleased smile. Her voice got all firm, too. “Once we get back to the apartment, I’m mending this cut and I don’t want a single protest from you, either.”

Thaia grinned broadly. “So you don’t think a scar would be a nice memento?”

“_No_.” Lexi gestured toward each of their wrists as she took another step back. “Traditionally, that’s what these are for.”

“Well, if they’re going to be our mementos, we have to get better ones. If Safira sees these, she’ll be absolutely horrified.” The cooling skin on Thaia’s face already missed the warm touch of Lexi’s hands. To distract herself, Thaia dashed back to her luggage, slung her pack on and then grabbed her seabag. “Horrified.”

“Far be it from us to not be fashion-forward and therefore an affront to one of your sisters.”

“You’ve never been the target of one of her judgmental looks before.” Thaia gave her a pointed look before starting in the direction of the C-Sec entry point. “I’m trying to save you from something unfairly scathing. Because I care.”

“I’m sure.” Lexi’s hand brushed against Thaia’s as she took over pulling the seabag. “And you should use both straps on your pack unless you want to risk injuring your back.”

Rolling her eyes, Thaia did as Lexi recommended. It wasn’t really optional, anyway. Not if she wanted any kind of sympathy if her back or anything else randomly started to hurt later. 

“How long do you think it will take us to get through security?” Lexi asked after a few steps.

“If we’re lucky? An hour. In fact,” Thaia said, taking the seabag handle back from Lexi, maybe somewhat deliberately letting their hands touch longer than called for—goddess, what was _wrong_ with her?—because she didn’t want to be separated for some weird-ass reason, “I’ll take this so they don’t get suspicious of you. I’ve got my leathers and weapons in here, so C-Sec will be extra-special interested.”

“Oh, I remember last time when you brought all your gear with you. I believe you set a record for someone who wasn’t technically detained? You were there for the full amount of my shift at Huerta. In fact, I was able to have a nice talk with your father while we waited outside C-Sec for the last hour. And there was a reason, wasn’t there? Beyond you having all your gear.”

One really unfair trait of Lexi’s was that she sounded attractive when she was smug as fuck, like right now.

Thaia hummed in agreement. “Might’ve been belligerent.” Then she focused on C-Sec checkpoint a few steps ahead, the previously bored officers straightening from their slouches on noticing her approach. Nothing like having a reputation.

“Might?” asked Lexi, raising a brow.

“Fine, I was. But once we got home you _saw _the condition that the C-Sec officer left my stuff in. My pack and my seabag were ransacked. Everything unfolded and just thrown back inside, clothes crumpled into balls, toiletries mixed with everything else instead of in their little bag in case anything spilled, and then what he did with my—”

Lexi placed a hand on her forearm, stopping Thaia’s rant in its tracks. “I did see. Though I question whether it was worth an entire day spent in C-Sec’s company.”

“Probably not, no, but I’m not letting C-Sec know that.” Thaia was still pissed about it enough that she had to forcibly relax her muscles. “And, before you say it, I’ll be as cooperative as I can possibly be this time so we aren’t stuck there for hours. I don’t want to waste any second of this vacation time of yours.”

“Well,” Lexi said, giving Thaia’s arm a fond squeeze before she removed her hand, “even if we’re stuck there for an extended amount of time, at least we’ll be together.”

They would be. Warmth spread through Thaia’s chest at the realization and she didn’t know what to do with it, so she covered it up with her usual. “I doubt you’d say the same if we were in a jail cell.”

Lexi sighed.

The warm feeling didn’t go away. It couldn’t, not with Lexi right there.

This was so fucking confusing.

After they arrived at the C-Sec post, a male human officer—Carlson, according to his ID tag—escorted them down a white-walled corridor. It exited into an open-area office lined with rows of desks and C-Sec officers from a variety of Council species milling about or, in a few cases, diligently working. Then Carlson pointed at a bare plasteel table located behind a short partition that was in a corner closer to the exit into the Citadel proper. The table, Thaia knew, was used for conducting luggage searches along with the questioning of persons deemed not immediately threatening, yet worthy of some suspicion.

Persons such as those on a list of people who tried to fly a model ship through the Relay Monument _one time_ and were subsequently arrested because apparently pretending to fly models through the Relay Monument was illegal. It was doubly illegal when the person trying to fly the thing was also way more intoxicated than she’d planned due to a combination of poor decision making, peer pressure, residual pain medication in her bloodstream from her dislocated shoulder earlier that day, and drinking at a dive bar with her enabling peers.

Thaia wondered if flying an actual vehicle through the relay would be illegal.

She voiced the question to Lexi.

Lexi stared at her for a moment, like she did each time Thaia asked some sort of inane question. “You’re not serious.”

“I’m not going to try it, if that’s what you’re worried about. I wouldn’t dare besmirch your good name now that it’s legally associated with mine.”

“Besmirch?” Lexi’s amusement was beating out her exasperation, if the way her eyes shined was any indication. It was that or the C-Sec office’s lighting was blinding.

“It’s the first time in at least a century that I’ve used that word. Don’t take this moment away from me.”

Lexi’s smile crept out. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Thaia couldn’t help but return it, and then promptly spoke as if things between them weren’t strange and confusing. “If you want any suggestions about what you should dream about, I’ve got—”

Carlson rapped his knuckles on the table. “Put your belongings up here, Kallistrate.”

“For the record,” Thaia said as she heaved first her pack and then her seabag onto the table with audible thumps, “they were _really_ good suggestions.”

“That isn’t information I need to record.” Carlson brushed a piece of lint from his perfectly ironed shirt and then brought up the holodisplay on his omni-tool. “First, do you have anything to declare?”

“This entire process is bullshit.”

Lexi elbowed her. Hard. Which was also bullshit because Carlson had fucking started it.

Meanwhile, Carlson typed something, which no C-Sec officer ever did when Thaia said shit like that, not unless they were stick-up-their-ass-by-the-book or a rookie. Judging by his low rank and the crisp lines and vibrancy of his uniform and his eagerness, Thaia’s credits were on rookie. Possibly even a first day rookie.

A rookie who had Thaia open her pack before telling her and Lexi, “Take a seat there,” indicating the plain plasteel bench against the wall on the opposite side of the table from him.

Thaia slouched down on the bench, crossed her arms, and then extended her legs and crossed her ankles. Sure, she’d come off as surly but that was better than threatening. She didn’t want to risk this shit overriding her excitement about the pending trip with Lexi—if Lexi agreed to go to Aite. Then again, she could do with a little bit of forgetting how confused she was about Lexi.

Her bondmate.

She couldn’t stop the smile that briefly broke through her scowl.

What the fuck was wrong with her? It was _fake_. Goddess.

She did stop slouching, though.

With Thaia and Lexi seated, Carlson proceeded to rifle through everything. Messily, turning what had been perfectly packed into disarray. It physically hurt as she was forced to watch as the neatness became complete chaos, first in her pack, and then he moved onto her seabag.

This was _worse_ than last time. There was no way he wasn’t doing it on purpose but Thaia watched in agonized silence because objecting to his disorganization would prolong her detour here. She had a trip to go on with Lexi and it would be awesome and worth dealing with this rookie’s shit as long as they could go on it.

Carlson partially lifted Thaia’s leathers from their section of the seabag. “You’re a commando?”

Thaia willed her fucking fingers to not curl into fists and somehow, by some miracle, managed to sound nonchalant. “No, I like to roleplay.” 

A laugh came from one of the desks behind the frosted glass partition.

Carlson blinked and stared at Thaia like she’d meant it and he was probably imagining scenarios. The fuck. 

His eyes flicked to Lexi.

_Definitely_ imagining scenarios.

“Yes, she’s a commando,” said Lexi, sharp as a fucking scalpel. “Not only would that information be in her file, but she’s standing in front of you while wearing a Republics militia uniform. If you couldn’t determine such basic information when readily available, I question whether or not you possess the mental acumen required of a C-Sec officer.”

Thaia could’ve kissed her, right then and there in front of everyone, everything else be damned. She didn’t. Instead, shoulders squared and proud as fuck, Thaia tore her gaze from Lexi to look at Carlson. “That’s my bondmate,” she declared, grinning as widely as she wanted to because these were the people they had to convince that their bonding was legit. “In case you didn’t figure it out, she’s the scary one.”

Carlson huffed and said nothing, opting to continue his search.

A message notification flashing on Thaia’s omni spared Carlson from her glare as she turned her attention from him still rifling through her stuff to opening the message. 

It was from Meir.

> _Hot hookup last night so I forgot to hit send. Then I overslept for the same reason but I can meet you at C-Sec now._

Of _course_ her second oldest sister would be here. Of _course _she’d answer too late to be of any help whatsoever, and if she tried to help now, Thaia would have to explain the lengths she’d gone to just to go on a trip with Lexi. And, when Meir heard, she would be fucking merciless.

> It’s fine. Lexi’s got it covered.

> _How? She isn’t a superior officer, diplomat, or relative._

Before Thaia could begin to think of a way to take back what she’d unwittingly told her sister, Meir sent a follow-up message.

> _WAIT. YOU DIDN’T._

> We’ll talk about it later.

> _No, we’re talking about it now._

Shit. One of the last things anyone needed was Meir down here being, well, Meir.

> Later!

> _I’m coming down there right now. I want to say hi to my new sister-in-law. _

> NO!

> _Too late, I’m already halfway there._

“Fuck. _Fuck_.” Thaia shut down her omni’s screen and then ran her hand over her crest, wincing when she accidentally pressed too hard on the bandage.

Carlson froze mid-rummage and squinted at her. “Is there a problem?”

“No. It’s fine.”

It wasn’t fine. It wasn’t anywhere near fine. Meir was going to tell everyone. If they were lucky, Meir would wait until they weren’t in public. If they were unlucky, Meir would drag them up to the Presidium Lake and shout about it louder than the hanar proselytizers. If Thaia had been the nervous laughter kind of person, she’d be laughing her nervous ass off right now. She ran her hand over her crest again and poked the bandage. Shit, it was tender.

Lexi reached over, grasped her hand and lowered it before Thaia could poke it a third time. “You should have taken the two minutes to let Ovadia mend that properly.” Once satisfied that Thaia wasn’t going to prod at it again, Lexi let go. “So, what was it that’s fine but has you swearing at your omni?”

To keep herself from touching her crest again, Thaia crossed her arms. “As it turns out, Meir _is_ here on the Citadel.”

“Of course she is,” was as much as Lexi got out before she was interrupted.

“What,” Carlson said as he used both arms to heave the kit encased in weatherproof, tear-proof black nano-mesh cloth that contained Thaia’s standard militia-issued emergency supplies out of the seabag and onto the table, “is in this?”

The writing was literally right there on the side. Thaia didn’t say that, though. Instead, in the most neutral tone she could manage, she listed the kit’s contents. “Emergency sleeping bag, emergency rations, emergency shelter. You know, emergency things because it’s an emergency supply kit. Standard militia issue.” She pointed at the tamper-proof seal. “Scan that and it’ll show it hasn’t been fucked with. If you open it, you’ll fuck up the stasis mechanism that keeps everything new, and the entire kit will have to be replaced and you’ll be doing the buying. They don’t run cheap.”

Carlson scanned the seal, scowled, and heaved the kit back into the seabag, crushing the smaller bag—previously safely wrapped in her cold-weather gear—where Thaia had stowed away the tins of new teas she’d picked up for Lexi on Lusia. _Goddess_. Shoulders rigid, she leaned forward, ready to—

Lexi’s gentle hand on her shoulder reminded Thaia that it wasn’t worth getting detained for hours more.

It was a close thing, though. It’d taken her hours to find the perfect variety of teas tailored to Lexi’s preferences and she wasn’t sure when she’d get to go to Lusia again.

Carlson took out Thaia’s shotgun, still in its biometrically locked case. He gave her a challenging look as he then took out Thaia’s pistol, also in a biometrically locked case, and placed it next to the shotgun case. “Weapons?”

“Given that Kallistrate is a commando,” a different C-Sec officer said, a female turian, head visible over the partition before she stepped around it, “finding Republics militia-issued weapons in properly locked and secured cases in her gear shouldn’t be shocking. Especially if she’s obviously returning from being in the field and—” She paused when she took a second look at Thaia. Eyes catching on the tears in Thaia’s shirt and running up to the bandage on her crest, the officer’s green painted mandibles flicked out in amusement. “Did you even bother cleaning up before you headed here?”

Thaia recoiled. “I showered. Commandos do practice basic hygiene.”

“However, I see you aren’t into sewing.” The the officer—Iunia, according to her ID tag—brought up on her omni the same file Carlson had open on his. “Let’s finish this up and get you out of here before you shove a warp up the rook’s ass in a C-Sec bullpen full of C-Sec officers, yet, inexplicably, there isn’t a single witness.” She entered something into the file and then read directly from it: “Are you aware that we’re legally required to notify the Asari Embassy that you’re on the Citadel?”

“Yes.”

“Good, because we already told them. And I bet you know what they said.”

Thaia rolled her eyes. If the Embassy had anything to say about it, she wouldn’t be allowed on the Citadel at all for the next decade. Diplomats, as it turned out, disliked events termed ‘Incidents.’

“They did, however, express some surprise that you were apparently”—Iunia double checked her omni—“bonded this morning?”

“Yes.” Thaia braced herself for the direct and exhaustive line of questioning she knew would follow. The line of questioning she’d been prepping for since the moment Lexi agreed to the plan.

Iunia glanced at Lexi, sitting beside Thaia. “That you?”

“Yes,” Lexi said with a nod.

If Thaia was right, Lexi might’ve sounded pleased when she said it. Maybe.

“It must be love if you can put up with the likes of her,” said Iunia.

A playful half-smile curled the corners of Lexi’s lips. “It’s a trial, to be sure.”

“Hey!” said Thaia.

Then Iunia snapped off her omni. “All right, everything’s in order. You’re clear.”

Thaia almost jumped to her feet and shouted _that’s it?!_

Carlson won the race for expressing outrage. “But—”

“Pack up those weapons the way you found them,” said Iunia. “Now.”

“But we need to determine whether or not it’s a sham just to get Kallistrate onto the—”

Iunia lifted up the pistol case and set it gently back down into the seabag. “I really don’t give a single fuck. Everything’s signed and valid. They’re free to go.” Then she watched intently and pointedly as Carlson swiftly put the shotgun case away and closed everything up.

Thaia was still considering whether or not to gesture rudely at Carlson in triumph when Lexi placed a hand on her forearm again. “Don’t.”

“I wasn’t,” Thaia said after they’d stepped onto one of the main Citadel thoroughfares.

“You were considering it.”

“I think you know me too well.”

Lexi again gave Thaia the smile that confused and clouded matters, but she was always compelled to return it and did. Then Lexi asked, “Are you going to tell me what your actual plans are?”

“Not in the middle of a crowd, no. When we get home, yes.” They walked toward a three-way intersection, banks of elevators in the wall directly across from the path they were on, rapid transit kiosks flanking both sides of their path. Right smack in the middle, dressed in militia casuals bearing the flash for her own militia unit, stood Meir.

Maybe she hadn’t seen them yet.

“We could have a chance,” Thaia whispered. Odds weren’t in their favor, not with Meir being a spotter and tracker who’d trained with the Armali Sniper Unit for two centuries before joining a different squad, but there was a chance, however minuscule. 

Lexi glanced at her. “What?”

Readying to bolt, Thaia grabbed Lexi’s hand with her free one.

They did not have a chance.

“The new bondmates are _holding hands_! That’s so adorable I could vomit rainbows and shit glitter!” said Meir.

Yelled, actually.

Yelled right in front of a bank of elevators, loud enough that the hanar proselytizer stopped proselytizing and looked in their direction.

Along with everyone else milling about in front of the elevators. And there were a lot of people milling about and also walking past because that’s what people did at a major transportation hub of a gigantic space station.

_Fuck_.

And Thaia’s sister had the matriarchal tits to look proud as fuck about the attention she’d drawn to them. Meanwhile, Thaia was pretty sure her cheeks were on fucking fire and honestly she wanted the sea to drag her under right fucking then and when she came face-to-face with Piares after drowning, Piares would commiserate with her about awful older sisters and, really, Thaia had deserved better.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, nothing like that happened.

“That’s what you were referring to,” said Lexi, somehow not sounding nearly as mortified as Thaia felt. She wasn’t even blushing.

Thaia was a fucking commando and _she_ was blushing. Goddess, the unfairness of it all. Her dad and Meir were the only two people who could embarrass her like this, so of course it was Meir who was here.

At least her dad wasn’t here. 

Heart racing, she did a quick survey of the area, on the lookout for Sula because it wasn’t out of the question that Sula could’ve arrived during the long-ass time Thaia and Lexi had been with C-Sec. And if Sula was here, the torture wouldn’t be merely doubled, but compounded. 

“Don’t bother running. I’m faster than you.” Meir nudged through the crowd, half of them still gawking. “Goddess, it took you long enough. I’m pretty sure C-Sec purposefully has new people run you through the process to see if they can take it. Well, at least it gave me time to get vids of your bonding ceremony from your squadmates _and_ watch them.” She grinned and it was a wicked grin and Thaia didn’t trust it. And Meir proved her right by asking, “Did you even hear anything the priestess said?”

_No_. Fucking fuck, Thaia should’ve sucked it up and asked her squadmates which ceremony it’d been because them giving her shit was way easier to deal with than Meir’s shit-giving.

Lexi didn’t provide an answer, either.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Meir hugged Lexi and Thaia in turn, and then stood back and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “I swear to the goddess you were both in your own little fucking world or something. In case you haven’t figured it out, it wasn’t the friend commitment bonding, which means your friends and family will have to arrange your bonding retreat. Responsibilities and all.” She looked at Lexi. “Does Harry know?”

“Not yet,” Lexi said after hesitating.

Oh, Thaia well knew the trepidation in Lexi’s voice. It was the same kind Thaia had felt about Meir finding out—dreading the mountains of shit that would soon be heaped upon them.

Using her hands on their shoulders as leverage, Meir steered them toward the nearest rapid transit kiosk. “Let’s get back to your place. I need to place some calls and it’s tragically too noisy here.” Once at the kiosk, Meir let them go, summoned the next available transit skycar, and then checked her omni. And grinned. “Good, Harry will get there around the same time as us.”

Lexi ran a hand over her face. “Goddess.”

Smiling brightly, Meir threw her arms around their shoulders and pulled them closer. “_I_,” she said, looking at each of them in turn, “am doing this for _you_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AYS (Ardat-Yakshi Syndrome) is the term used by most after the cure was found for the genetic illness.


	3. Turnpike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
1\. “It will be fun, trust me.”  
6\. “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?”  
7\. “No, and that’s final.”  
12\. “What if I don’t see it?”  
24\. “Patience… is not something I’m known for.”

**The Citadel, 2210.**

In the apartment, there wasn’t any respite to be found, not between Harry—Lexi’s other best friend—and a determined Meir.

Even though Thaia needed to re-pack both her seabag and her pack while deciding what she should bring on the trip, she wasn’t given a chance because Lexi insisted on mending her cut. Then Harry said he’d do it since it was best that a spouse not provide medical care for the other spouse unless it was an emergency, and, besides, Lexi needed to pack for the honeymoon.

Lexi’s protests of _I don’t even know where we’re going_ were brushed off and a suitcase procured from a closet before Meir shooed her back to the master bedroom.

Goddess, Thaia would have help Lexi put everything into another backpack after the others finally fucking _left_. If they ever did.

Harry maneuvered Thaia into one of the dining table chairs, facing away from the window overlooking a busy Tayseri Ward street multiple floors below. “So,” he said, pushing aside a stack of datapads and pile of OSDs to clear space on the table because while Lexi kept up with things like dishes when Thaia was gone, she somehow became immune to clutter, not seeing it until Thaia returned from deployment, “who did the proposing?”

Bamboozling them with the absurd truth was Thaia’s only recourse. “Ragna. And I suppose Arun and Rosava, too.”

Harry crouched down from inspecting Thaia’s crest to look her in the eye. “Is that an asari tradition I’m not aware of?”

“No,” Meir said from the kitchen where she had a cabinet open. And two more she hadn’t bothered to close, dark grey doors sticking out in a row like the line of championship banners outside Armali Union’s home field. “It’s a commando ‘our squadmate is a dumbass and we’re going to help her stop being a dumbass’ tradition. Arun has a priestess on her squad who was more than happy to participate in our time-honored tradition.” She took a package of biscuits from the cabinet, tossed them onto the island counter, and opened a fourth cupboard. Without closing the third.

“That wasn’t what it was,” said Thaia.

“Let’s get a look at this cut.” Harry carefully began peeling off the bandage. “Hold still.”

“What do you think it was?” asked Meir, pouring water into the tall glass she’d gotten from the now _fifth_ opened cupboard. “Because I can tell you right now it wasn’t that.”

“Feel free to make yourself at home,” Thaia said through a grumble. Meir was as bad as Carlson with the purposely messing up organization. Sure, Thaia fully admitted to preferring her home maybe a little too neat, but even Lexi tended toward somewhat neat, if only to make grabbing her stuff while running out the door more efficient, especially if she was responding to an emergency while on call.

“I will.” Meir shot her a pleased look. “Might need to order in. I haven’t had breakfast yet.” She started going through menus on her omni. “And don’t think I didn’t notice that you act like this apartment isn’t just Lexi’s, but yours too.”

Shit. She had. She did think of it that way because this was home on the Citadel and even Lexi called it home or the apartment while talking to Thaia like she had earlier, and not ‘my place’ or ‘my apartment’ meaning it was only Lexi’s and not Thaia’s.

“I’m not on the lease,” Thaia said, knowing it was a weak defense at best. “I don’t pay rent, either.”

“Just because you’re a freeloader doesn’t change anything.”

Thaia blinked. She _had_ been a fucking freeloader. Fuck. After the first six months of staying with Lexi whenever she was on the Citadel—Thaia even had a closet and dresser of her own at this point—she should’ve insisted on helping with the rent.

Mortified. She was mortified. She should’ve volunteered a year and a half ago, when Lexi had given her the fucking access codes.

Thaia went to slouch, but Harry hauled her back up. “One, stay still. Two, you’re fine. I helped Lexi find this apartment when she moved here and it’s perfectly affordable on her hospital salary.”

“Still doesn’t change that I didn’t fucking ask.”

Now chowing down on the biscuits, Meir shrugged. “So, when Lexi comes back out here, offer to start contributing and hand over whatever back rent you think you should pay.” She tapped her omni’s haptic interface. “Oh, this place is good. Anyone else hungry? I’m buying.”

“Yes, actually.” Thaia’s stomach rumbled at the reminder. She hadn’t eaten anything except a small bag of crackers she’d grabbed on her run through Monoi’s spaceport.

“I’ll order enough for everyone. We’ve gotten food from here before—ah ha! Last order’s in my history so I know what everyone likes.”

Thaia decided that maybe it was a bad idea that not only had her family gotten to know Harry and some of Lexi’s other friends—doctors all—but they’d also also hung out as a group on several occasions.

“There, done. Be about twenty or thirty minutes, they said.” Meir resumed tearing through the entire fucking package of biscuits. “I should start making those calls. I’ll sync all the connections to your vid panel in the living area so we can see and hear everyone better.”

“Everyone?” asked Harry, wiping down the cut with antiseptic, the biting scent masking the sugary aroma of the biscuits. 

Meir pushed herself off the counter. “Harry, you know we have a big family.”

“You don’t need to conference call our whole fucking family,” said Thaia.

“Yes, I fucking do. You went and got bonded without any of us there, so the least you can do is suffer through everyone giving you shit for it at once.”

“It wasn’t _real_.” Thaia went to rub her forehead, but scowled when she remembered she couldn’t. “We did it so I could get into the Citadel because, _at the time_, I was under the impression that no one from my family was here.”

“Look, you have to understand how _good_ she—”

“I get it. You were getting railed by someone really good at railing. I’m happy for you. I don’t need details.”

Meir tossed the empty biscuit package into the trash bin but acted like the crumbs on the counter didn’t exist. “You’re lucky I have more important things to accomplish right now or you’d be getting every lurid detail from last night. Anyway, I’m definitely not sorry that me not hitting ‘send’ somehow ended up with you finally bonding with Lexi.”

“As a _cover_,” said Thaia, not that Meir cared.

“Did some looking. It’s real and valid in Citadel and Republics space.”

“Still fake.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” said Harry. “Both of you. Just wait until everyone at the hospital finds out. They were all already convinced you and Lexi were everything but bonded. They’re probably going to scream when they find out you’re now, as Mallory would put it, lawfully wedded.”

“Emphasis on lawfully,” said Meir, moving to the living room and leaving her empty glass on the counter and surrounded by crumbs instead of at the very fucking _least_ rinsing it out and putting it in the sink, like a civilized person.

Fuck it. If Thaia was going to call Meir out on this, she needed to be standing.

Harry held her fast. “I’m sealing up your cut now and I’m not going to let it scar, so hold still.”

“You should let it scar though,” said Meir. “Be a better memento than those cheap flash-fabbed bracelets you’re wearing.”

Thaia decided that she did love her sister and therefore could maybe forgive her someday in the far future.

“No,” said Lexi, emerging from the hallway. “No matter how any of you act or what you say, none of you are physiologically krogan. And unless you’ve been through a rite of passage on Tuchanka and not told me, there’s no reason for you to keep scars as markers of significant stages of your life.”

“Then you’d better be planning on new bracelets because it might physically pain Safira to look at them,” Meir said as she fiddled with the vid panel’s controls.

Thaia rolled her eyes and Lexi sighed.

Done with the sealant, Harry gave Lexi a sympathetic look. “They really aren’t the best quality, Lexi. Personally, I wouldn’t want to wear it for ten hours, much less ten years.”

“Harry,” said Lexi.

“What? I’m only telling the truth.” He stepped back and examined Thaia’s head with a critical eye. “Come take a look and confirm that it won’t scar.”

“An aesthetically pleasing scar though,” Meir said, now comfortable on the couch. “It would’ve lined up real nice with the one she has from headbutting that kid when she was little.”

Thaia fucking _saw_ Lexi’s smile before she smothered it. She’d laughed when Thaia had first told her the story, even as she tried to scold Thaia for headbutting in the first place.

“Even then,” said Lexi.

Harry laughed. “I know that tone. You were tempted to agree.”

Then Sula’s image appeared on the vid panel, cutting off any further discussion. Behind her was a window offering an expansive view of the Armali skyline, which was Sula’s favorite part about her office. “What the fuck?” Sula said, gesturing madly toward the screen on her desk and therefore the people on the other side of the call. Then she jabbed a finger at Thaia, who stood—no, she totally wasn’t cowering—at the edge of the camera’s field of view. “You send out a message asking if anyone’s on the Citadel without fucking mentioning ‘oh yeah, by the way, I’m getting bonded, thought you should know’ and then you don’t voluntarily tell anyone _after_ the fact, either?”

Meir leaned over and yanked Thaia toward her with a tug of biotics. Caught by surprise, Thaia yelped and toppled onto the couch, directly in front of Sula’s still jabbing finger. Behind her, Thaia heard Lexi and Harry’s footsteps as they joined them in the living area. 

Sula hadn’t stopped. “The fuck is wrong with you? That’s just basic manners no matter who you are.” She paused, put her hand down, and her tone of voice changed to so nice and pleasant it was like she was a different person. She even smiled. “Hi, Lexi. I’m not pissed at you, just my kid. Welcome to the family. We all love you and if you and my kid split up, we’re keeping you and not her.”

Thaia sat up straight. “What?!”

“She’s nicer. And has manners. I hope you weren’t under the mistaken impression that this bonding thing wouldn’t turn out to be real and actually break it. Because you would be wrong. Also, family gatherings would be awkward with Lexi still there. For that matter, you’re lucky your mother’s at that literary conference on Tuchanka right now. Might be a day or two before she’s on non-emergency comms again, but that means she’ll have that much more to throw at you.”

“_Fuck_.” Thaia slid back down on the couch.

“A literary conference on Tuchanka?” said Lexi. “Did I hear that right?”

Sula nodded. “You did. Current members of the krogan renaissance are doing readings and a whole bunch of workshops. Indah was going to teach just one workshop but she underestimated the popularity of her war ballads with the krogan. The renaissance has attracted some genuine galactic interest. Nice to see the galaxy finally respecting krogan work.”

“It’s long overdue. Sounds like something I would’ve liked to have attended, if I’d known I’d have the time available.” Regret dulled her eyes, but some of the liveliness returned when Aunt Jarah and Uncle Khel joined Sula in her office.

“Lexi!” said Aunt Jarah. “What wonderful news! It would have been nice if my niece had so much as sent a short message to let us know, but there’s no way anyone can hold that against you.”

“Welcome to the family,” Uncle Khel added, his krogan rumble a counterpoint to the asari voices.

Sliding even further down off the couch, Thaia covered her eyes with her arm. But even her family’s complaints about her actions couldn’t entirely override her happiness at guessing right about Lexi and the conference. And that she’d get to see Lexi’s eyes shine with excitement about what she’d learn while they were there.

Eirian, her next older sister, joined in. “This happened on Lusia? I would’ve taken a break from my Hesperia Period research if you’d bothered to _say_ something!”

Thaia still didn’t look.

Then she heard Safira, her oldest sister, say, “I would have liked to be there for you, you know.” And Thaia slouched so far down she nearly slithered off the couch because Safira had sounded not merely disappointed, but the ‘I am disappointed in_ you_’ disappointed which was thousands of times worse because Thaia wanted to make Safira proud. She might as well have reached into Thaia’s chest and squeezed her heart for how much it shrank.

But this whole bonding was _fake_ though so neither of them should’ve felt disappointed or guilty and this wasn’t fair. Thaia slowly lowered her arm, revealing a vid panel filled with the irritated, amused, and disappointed faces of her family. Aunt Jarah and Uncle Khel were shoulder-to-shoulder with Sula, Safira’s comm was from their family’s house in Armali, and Eirian was calling in from a hotel room somewhere. Thaia let out a sigh. “Okay, I get that you’re all… all the different emotions you are, but you’re having all these feelings about something that isn’t real.”

Safira’s gaze followed Lexi as she carefully made her way around the couch to sit to Thaia’s right, on the opposite side from Meir. Then Safira settled on Thaia again. “I don’t think so, karyote.”

Well, the look in Safira’s eyes there combined with her softly spoken disappointment was un-fucking-bearable and Thaia covered her eyes again. At this rate—

“Keep your arm right there,” Safira said, pointed enough to pin Thaia in place. 

She didn’t dare fucking move because the last time Safira had used that tone with her, a fucking spider had been running straight toward Thaia’s leg. Safira had saved her life that day. “Why?”

“I cannot believe you’re wearing—Lexi, hold up your arm. I need to see your wrist.” There was movement from Lexi and then Safira gasped like she’d just witnessed an atrocity. “Goddess, no sister and sister-in-law of mine are going to walk around with _those_. Here’s how you can make it up to me. And, for that matter, yourselves. Before you go on whatever trip you have planned, you get yourselves good bracelets. Something respectable. Something that isn’t an affront to jewelry.”

Meir snorted in laughter. “I fucking told you.”

The brief flash of a notification light on both Lexi and Thaia’s omni-tools informed them—verified with a quick check of the door cam—that the food Meir had ordered had arrived. As the rest of her family continued to talk, Thaia showed Meir, who leapt off the couch to fetch the food.

Thaia did her best to not think about _how_ her sister had worked up an appetite. 

“Safira’s not wrong,” said Sula. “Those are pretty bad. Were your eyes closed when you fabricated them?”

“You look at them the wrong way and they’ll snap,” said Uncle Khel. “Kinda dangerous, if you ask me.”

“We didn’t exactly have the luxury of time or options,” said Lexi, twisting the bracelet around her wrist. “And the bonding wasn’t re—”

Sula raised a finger. “No, I’m not listening to either of you trying to fly that shit past me again.” She pitched her voice louder so Meir would hear her from the front door. “Your job is to facilitate these two getting good bracelets. There’ll be plenty of places to find them because goddess knows the fastest cultural shift I’ve witnessed in my entire life was how it took less than a single fucking year for traditional bondings to come back into style after AYS was cured. So.” She tapped something into her desk terminal. “I’m forwarding you the names of some reputable stores. Take Harry. Don’t forget the threads. Get Safira on a call while you’re there so that whatever gets picked out is deemed respectable by her standards. Put everything on my account. Consider it my bonding gift.” She looked directly behind the couch, where Harry was. “You’re allowed to opt out, by the way.”

“Oh, no,” said Harry. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Lexi sighed.

Amusement broke through Sula’s show of irritation when she directly addressed Lexi and Thaia. “And your asses aren’t allowed to argue with me because I’m a matriarch and you aren’t.”

“More like they’re dumbass matrons who only subconsciously know what’s best for themselves,” said Eirian.

Uncle Khel laughed. “Like you should talk. Remember what happened with you and—”

“This is about _Thaia_, not me.” 

Meir returned bearing take-out containers and flatware, and proceeded to distribute the admittedly mouth-watering food. 

Even as they ate, the rest of the family kept going like Thaia and Lexi weren’t even there. Which, compared to being directly scolded, wasn’t so bad.

Especially when the others became so preoccupied that she and Lexi were left undisturbed as they exchanged text messages while sitting right in front of them.

> _I would like to know what your idea is. I’ve been wondering for hours._

> After my family’s gone because I’m not going to let them ruin it.

> _They don’t ruin everything. And their insistence that we get better quality bracelets is a good idea. This one won’t hold up to the constant sanitization processes I have to go through during my shifts at the hospital. And I doubt yours is combat-grade. These simply won’t last._

Thaia looked up from her omni and raised an eyebrow at Lexi before she returned to typing.

> Wasn’t this supposed to be a fake bonding?

> _I don’t mind keeping up with the charade. With how much we share on the Citadel already, it isn’t a hardship._

> You sure know how to woo an asari.

Then Thaia winked at her.

Lexi scoffed, deactivated her omni, and returned to eating.

While Thaia kept her eyes on the remains of her meal, she had stop herself from smiling at Lexi’s reaction before she could take another bite.

Once they’d finished the late breakfast, Thaia’s family was _still_ going on about the fake bonding. They needed to wrap things up if they were going to get to Aite some time in the next fucking century. So Thaia interrupted with the volume mastered through the curse of being the youngest of four in a talkative family and wanting to occasionally be heard. Over everyone. “Could we hurry this up? We’ve got a trip to go on.”

“Why, yes, you _do_,” said Meir, a knowing smirk thrown in Thaia and Lexi’s direction.

“Maybe they’ll stop with all this ‘it’s pretend’ shit after they go on a proper honeymoon,” said Sula. “They need to get started on some grandkids. It’d be nice for Auri and Basya to finally have some cousins.”

Thaia wanted to hide under the couch. “We’re sitting _right fucking here_.” She gestured behind her. “And Harry’s right there!”

“Don’t mind me,” Harry said from where he’d made himself comfortable on an armchair. “Lexi’s now an integral part of some fascinating family dynamics. Watching things unfold is quite educational.”

“_Harry_,” said Lexi, her scowl doing nothing but make him look more self-satisfied. 

Sula clapped her hands together. “We’ve got a meeting in five minutes and the clients are in the lobby. Thaia, Lexi, get those good bracelets and then get your asses on that honeymoon. Meir, Safira, Harry, make sure they do. I’ll be in touch.”

* * *

Resting on displays lined with black velvet, bonding bracelets of all types glittered under lighting balanced to bring out the best attributes of the metals and jewels. Thaia surveyed the contents of the case like she had the two previous ones, but didn’t see anything she liked. And this was taking forever and they only had a week before Lexi was back at work and Thaia still didn’t know if Lexi would even agree to go in the first place and who knew how long the pitch to her would take because Lexi asked insightful, targeted questions and a lot of them.

Thaia willed herself to calm down. She shouldn’t be this anxious about getting to spend time with Lexi.

“Keep moving,” Safira said from the vid call on Thaia’s omni. “Nothing in there looks any better than what you have on.”

“None of them are good, anyway,” said Thaia, the resignation weighing heavy in her chest sapping the enthusiasm from her voice.

The store employee on the other side of the cabinet, Amynta, put a hand to her chest. “How _dare_—”

“Come the fuck on,” said Meir. “That’s the third cabinet of cheap stuff you’ve shown them in a row.”

Amynta gestured at Thaia. “Have you _seen_ the state of her clothing?”

Thaia looked down. The two tears in her shirt—one on her left flank and the other to the right of her belly button—had somehow ripped wider, now showing flashes of steel blue skin. “Shit, I should’ve changed.”

“You’re fine,” said Lexi.

Thaia grinned at her. “I sure am.”

Lexi swatted her on the arm like she did every time Thaia joked about her looks.

To Thaia, Lexi was finer, but Thaia still hadn’t worked out how to tell her without it being awkward. Bonding had strangely compounded that potential awkwardness.

“If you’re going to make judgments based on what someone’s wearing,” said Harry, a hardness to his tone Thaia had never heard from him, “then it shouldn’t escape your notice that the other person is a doctor.”

“A good one, too,” said Thaia.

Harry nodded. “She is.” 

Amynta looked entirely unconvinced.

“Setting aside that you cannot determine a person’s wealth simply from their clothing,” said Safira, posture perfect as her words bit into Amynta, “the person responsible for today’s bill is Matriarch Sula Calfuray.”

“And?”

In a deceptively relaxed pose with her hip cocked to the side, Meir loosely crossed her arms and studied Amynta hard. “How new are you?”

“People new at their jobs seems to be today’s theme,” said Thaia.

“Goddess, the name should sound familiar,” said another employee as she walked in from a back room. “Calfuray Systems is the company that provided the manufacturing designs of our cases.”

“Oh.” Amynta looked between the cases and the people arrayed in front of her. “_Oh_.”

Meir jerked her chin toward the second employee. “I want us to work with her. What’s your name?”

“Euanthe.” She sent Amynta to help another group of customers and then brought Thaia and the others to a fourth case. While Safira murmured approval of the artisanal skill on display, Thaia wasn’t as enthused.

“Anything pique your interest?” asked Safira. “There are more than a few possibilities on the second and third shelves.”

Whatever Safira saw on those shelves, Thaia didn’t. “None of those would work, I don’t think.”

Safira frowned. “Let’s talk. Go walk to that relatively private corner over near where you first came in and leave the others to keep looking.”

“Okay.” Safira did this sometimes, when she wanted to give advice but not give Meir or Eirian openings, so this wasn’t anything new. Though it was the first time they’d be having a conversation like this over a visual comm in a jewelry store.

After Thaia asked Lexi to keep Meir and Harry occupied, she headed to the corner Safira had mentioned. “All set,” Thaia said, leaning against the wall.

“For someone claiming that this was a fake bonding, you seem like you’re taking it seriously.”

“It’s...” Thaia trailed off when she looked over at Lexi, her back turned while she and the two others examined something Meir had pointed out. When Lexi reached out and motioned toward something in another case, the temporary bracelet glinted in the light and then she laughed at something Meir said and Thaia’s heart forgot to beat.

“I really don’t think you realize how you look at her,” Safira said, a gentle observation rather than any of the teasing from before. “The only other time you look at anything the same way is when you go home to the bay.”

“It’s confusing.” Cheeks on fucking fire, Thaia refused to look directly at Safira.

“You’ve looked at her like that whenever you’ve seen her over the past year. At least.”

“Like I said, it’s confusing.”

“In case you didn’t know, she looks at you the same way.” 

Thaia’s breath caught like her heart had and she didn’t know why. She still couldn’t risk looking at Safira, either. “Right, now it’s even more confusing.”

Safira sighed. “Well, if I can’t get you to stop being willfully blind about that, I can at least determine why you haven’t liked anything you’ve seen there so far. Some pieces in the fourth case are respectable.”

“None of them feel right. They’re supposed to…” Thaia’s gaze drifted toward Lexi again. “Whenever I see our parents’ bracelets, they remind me of home.” She placed a finger on her chest, near her heart. “Right here. That’s how they should feel. Reminding you that the person you’re bonded to is a part of your home you didn’t realize existed until you met them.”

Safira laughed, but it was kind and loving laughter Thaia had heard from her before. “And you _insist_ this is fake.” Perching her chin on her hand, Parnitha shining through the window to her right, she studied Thaia again. “You know what? I think I know what you mean with the bracelets. Here, I’ll send you something that’s closer to what you’re looking for. The smiths create the curves that look like they’re part of the metal through a method called pattern-welding. You should look it up later. It’s a process I think you’d find interesting.”

A holo of a new bracelet appeared. Solid and simple aside from the curves that Safira had mentioned that immediately drew the eye. “They look like waves.” This bracelet was the closest thing to acceptable Thaia had seen all day.

“I know. Home to you is the water,” said Safira. “Now, show this to Euanthe. She’ll be able to find something you like based off it. I’d stay longer, but I need to get to Auri and Basya’s skyball game.”

Thaia smiled. “Tell them I said to kick some ass.”

“I will. Send me a holo once you have the good bracelets. Give Lexi my love and think about what I said.” Then Safira signed off.

The whole problem was that if Thaia let herself think about things like what Safira had said, she got more confused. Thinking was supposed to bring clarity. Or that’s what the priestesses said.

Except Ragna, the priestess who’d performed their bonding ceremony, hadn’t said anything like that. Instead it’d been ‘may you thrive as you find unity in one’ which was emphatically _not_ the wording used in committed friendship bondings. No, those were the words used in bondings that started with a month or more in retreat, just the bonded pair—or triad or sometimes more, depending—getting very familiar with each other’s minds. And bodies.

And her throat went dry at the image of Lexi and—better she not think about that, either. 

Thaia took a settling breath and then rejoined everyone else. First, she showed the holo from Safira to the others. “This is more what I was looking for.”

“_That’s_ what the two of you were talking about?” asked Harry. “Your cheeks are so flushed I thought she was giving you suggestions for what you can do during your honeymoon.”

“That’s my job,” said Meir. “Safira’s not that crude. Actually, Thaia, I should tell you about something my date did last night. It involved eezo nodes and—”

“I told you I don’t need any details,” said Thaia.

“Eezo nodes and what?” asked Lexi.

Thaia stared at her before she slowly, painstakingly said, “You’re encouraging her, you realize that, right? You’re opening a dangerous, loud, and completely shameless box that you’ll never be able to close after. Ever.”

“I’m a doctor,” Lexi said, offering Thaia a smile that made Thaia imagine things she _should not_. “There’s essentially nothing anyone could say that could scandalize me.”

Meir rocked back on her heels. “Eezo nodes and _massage_.”

“Was your date a physician? Or someone in a medical profession?”

“No. Definitely not. Why do you ask?”

“It’s rare that anyone who isn’t in medicine would know how to safely manipulate eezo nodes like that.”

“Wait a second.” Even as she continued speaking to Lexi, Meir’s hand shot out and grabbed Thaia’s shoulder as Thaia tried to walk away. “Does that mean you know how to do… whatever the fuck it was she did to me?”

“I do,” Lexi said and Thaia was pretty sure there was some pride in there, which didn’t bode well. Or boded _incredibly_ well, if Meir’s reaction was any indication and the whole thing where Thaia and Lexi had fake bonded wasn’t true and it was real instead.

“Goddess!” Meir got her hands on both Thaia’s shoulders and held her in place. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”

Falling once more into a habit Thaia desperately needed to break, she answered without thinking. “My best friend is my bondmate. How could I not know how lucky I am?”

Meir patted her on the cheek. “You’re adorable. You’re also my sister and I love you, but goddess help me, you’re an idiot.”

Harry laughed. 

Then Euanthe cleared her throat, smiling when they turned to face her. “If the piece in that holo is close to what you’re looking for, I believe we have something that will meet with your approval.” She motioned for them to follow her to another case.

“I hope so because it turns out Thaia’s almost as picky as Safira is about jewelry,” said Meir.

“I’m telling her you said that,” said Thaia.

Euanthe set a shallow, open drawer on top of the glass counter. Then she pointed at a pair of bracelets in the top row. “What do you think?”

Thaia and Lexi both leaned forward to closely examine them, the bracelets holding most of Thaia’s attention, but her body became highly aware of how close Lexi was standing to her. Which was odd because she’d never been _this_ aware of Lexi’s proximity before, with her skin tingling in anticipation. Of what, Thaia refused to think about.

“I like them,” said Lexi, knocking Thaia out of her thoughts. “Though I can’t quite articulate why. Something about the lines feeling familiar.”

The bracelets shared the same concept as the one in the holo: pattern-welding incorporating waves into the silvery metal. The difference between them was in the sprays of eezo-blue only visible at an angle where the light hit them in a certain way. Thaia experienced the same notion of familiarity as Lexi did, but she knew where it came from.

The lines curved in the same patterns as the eezo in Kunoura Bay when it washed ashore at night. When Thaia was little, running outside to swim in the sea before Parnitha emerged above the horizon, she would kick up electric blue fantails of sand. By the time she reached the water, her feet would glow with it before the sea and the rising sun washed the eezo away.

Her chest ached, looking at the bracelets, but not in a bad way. It was a good feeling, a familiarity of home that Lexi felt in some way, as well. “I like them, too.”

“These then,” said Lexi.

Euanthe smiled. “Please, follow me so you can select your threads.”

_Shit_. Thaia had forgotten about picking threads with _meaning_ and she knew confused couldn’t be one. For a first-time bonding—of all types if they participated in the thread tradition—there was one thread that those bonded chose together to symbolize what they saw in their bonding. Then each person selected a thread for something they loved in the other person. For a pair bonding, it meant one thread each, but if the bonding had more than that, there were more threads. The only thing that would make any of it easier was there not being an audience while they chose threads. But members of the community were usually present when they weaved them together and put them in each other’s bracelets. After that, the threads wouldn’t be visible again until the threads were replaced at a renewal. The weaving wouldn’t be hard—Thaia had enough practice from dealing with sailing and fishing lines on the bay. And she didn’t see how anyone with decent hand-eye coordination would encounter difficulty with placing the threads.

The room Euanthe brought them to was small without being claustrophobic. Under neutral light, spools of thread in a wide array of colors waited on the oval-shaped table. In the common language of the Asari Republics, each differently colored thread was labeled for what it symbolized.

“I’ll leave you to it,” said Euanthe. “Once you’ve made your selections, send me a message and I’ll bring the others in.”

“Thank you,” said Lexi, which Thaia echoed.

Then Euanthe left and it was just them and suddenly it was weird.

“This shouldn’t be too difficult,” said Lexi. “No matter the legal status of the type of bonding, anything can apply here.”

“Yeah,” Thaia mumbled as she studied the options. “Just pick a reason why you love being the other person’s friend. Best friend. Easy.” In fact, it took Thaia only moments to decide on the thread for Lexi: kind. Thaia had seen it from the moment they’d met, how kind Lexi was with her patients. Then she’d discovered over the course of their relationship how that kindness extended to the rest of the people in her life. Thaia located the thread and tapped on the selection panel. So easy that she felt a little less nervous about selecting the third thread.

Next to her, Lexi quietly read the labels to herself in an accent Thaia rarely heard her use. There’d been hints of it a few times, but never anything extended like this, where it seemed like Lexi didn’t realize she was speaking with an Omegan accent.

It was endearing and Thaia loved it and wished she could hear it more often. That one time when Lexi had gotten unbelievably pissed during a skyball playoff game between Armali and Serrice had been hot as fuck and it’d taken Thaia longer than she’d liked to forget about it. And now she remembered in full.

Concentrate on the adorable aspects of the accent. She could do that.

“You should let yourself talk like that more,” said Thaia, and she couldn’t have stopped her smile even if her life had depended on it.

Lexi sighed. “No, not if I’m to be taken seriously in Citadel space. For that matter, you, Althaia Kallistrate, shouldn’t be one to tease others about their accent.”

“What? Are you talking about how I can’t hide the rural Armalian accent no matter how much time I’ve lived in the city of Armali? You told me you liked it.” Thaia had been pleased as fuck about that for _days_.

“I do.”

“Well, I wasn’t teasing you. I like yours. Probably more than I should.”

Lexi stilled, something softening the look in her eyes when she met Thaia’s. But before Thaia could discern what it was, Lexi returned to perusing the threads, running her finger along the labels until she found her target and made her selection.

_Mischievous._

“Hey!” said Thaia. “I’m not sure which I’m more offended by—the fact that it exists as an option or that you _picked it_.”

A self-satisfied little grin took the place of the softness from before as Lexi sat back and regarded Thaia again. “If mischievousness wasn’t a trait of yours that I love, why would I have agreed to go along with _any_ wild ideas of yours?”

Well. She had her there. It gave her some hope that Lexi would agree to go on the trip to Aite. “Okay, but what about the third thread?”

“Setting aside the legal bonding and what it entails, what if we choose something we mutually believe is the strongest aspect of any bond between us?”

Thaia read over the labels again, Lexi with her, and they stopped on the same thread together. There. Balance.

And there was balance between them. Thaia knew her mischievousness balanced out some of Lexi’s tendency to be a little _too_ dedicated to her work. Yet Thaia also knew that Lexi’s dedication usually served to reel in Thaia’s mischievousness to within the realm of reason. However, thinking about Lexi’s dedication, how she tempered it with kindness when working with patients, or how she tapped her chin with a stylus while reading up on new surgical techniques, or how her brow scrunched when she read a new ‘historical fiction’ novel, or when she got impassioned how she’d start gesturing along with her words, reminded Thaia how much she loved…

How much she loved…

_Oh_.

Oh no.

No. _No no no_.

The door opened, Meir bounding inside and getting to the business of inspecting their choices before Euanthe or Harry could say a word.

Or Thaia could come to grips with whatever the fuck her brain had decided to realize her heart felt right the fuck then. At a really inconvenient time in a really inconvenient way and this was supposed to be _fake_.

Unrepentant about her invasion of Thaia’s personal space, Meir tilted her head to the side. “Those are good choices. Only someone with the patience of Piares and actually loving how fucking mischievous my littlest sister is could possibly stay bonded to her for any length of time, banging or not. And of course Thaia loves your kindness. Who wouldn’t? And _balance_!” She put an arm around each of them and brought them in for quick hug. “You two are the most precious pair and I love you.”

“You’re the worst.” Thaia shoved Meir’s arm off her shoulders but it did nothing to quell Meir’s enthusiastic teasing. Honestly, Thaia had no idea what would. Ever.

“Euanthe explained the threads tradition to me while we were waiting outside,” said Harry, stepping around Meir to sit on Lexi’s left. “So, the one you picked together is balance? Because, if it is, according to my non-expert opinion on asari traditions, I think it was remarkably well-chosen.” 

“The evaluation you just provided is part of the responsibilities of the witnesses for thread weaving,” Euanthe said to Harry before sitting on the opposite side of the table. She set the tray with the bracelets down in front of her and then addressed Thaia and Lexi. “Will either of you require assistance? If so, we can accommodate you with ease.”

After neither of them asked for help—while it was tradition to weave it for the other person or persons yourself, there was nothing lessened about the bond if you couldn’t for whatever reason—Euanthe cut the threads, affixing three each in front of Thaia and Lexi so they could begin the process.

“I’ll prepare these as you work,” said Euanthe, gesturing toward the bracelets. “Once you’re done, you can slide the threads right in and I’ll close it up.”

“Hey, T’Perro,” Thaia said as she aligned the threads given to her, “I bet I can get mine done faster than you.”

Lexi didn’t look away from her threads as she began to weave. “You’re already behind.”

Scowling, Thaia focused on her own, nimble fingers managing to pick up just enough speed to finish before Lexi. It gave Thaia a head start on what should’ve been the easy part—placing the braided threads into the hollow channel in the bracelet.

Should have been. 

Except Thaia couldn’t get the threads to cooperate and just drop into the fucking channel in the fucking bracelet and how was _anyone_ supposed to do this with people watching? Or at all?

She was half tempted to throw it.

Maybe that was why witnesses were required. To stop people from doing exactly that.

She looked over at Lexi.

Who was done already.

“How!?” Thaia asked as she gawked at Euanthe closing up the finished bracelet.

“Surgeon,” said Lexi, merciful in the mildness of her answer when it could’ve been justifiably scathing as fuck.

Meir, however, probably couldn’t even spell mercy. “You bonded well, karyote. I heard surgeons are _real_ good with their hands.”

“I want a new witness.” Thaia gently set the bracelet and the threads on the table. “Literally anyone else. Maybe that guy from C-Sec.”

“If your sister wasn’t here, you would have said something along exactly those lines,” said Lexi.

“This is about Meir, not me.” Thaia studied the bracelet, wondering if she needed to try from a different angle. Or maybe use biotics. No, no, detonating it would be worse and possibly deadly.

“Out of curiosity, where are you going on your honeymoon?” asked Harry.

Meir laughed so loud it hurt. “That was the most transparent segue I’ve ever heard. I love it.”

Lexi reached over, picked up the threads, gently turned Thaia’s hand over, and then dropped the threads into Thaia’s palm. “Here, I’ll walk you through it. I used a surgical technique, which might possibly constitute cheating.”

If anyone asked Thaia to repeat the instructions Lexi walked her through, Thaia wouldn’t be able to because Lexi’s fingers were so warm on her own and how _soothing_ her voice was as she explained took up any and all room for other memories that might’ve formed. Also, her cheeks might’ve been on fire again and once the threads were in the bracelet and Euanthe closing it up with a nifty little tool Thaia caught Meir giving her at least three suspicious looks. Might’ve been a fourth but Thaia stopped looking in her direction after the third.

“Do you want to keep these temporary bracelets?” Euanthe asked after she had Lexi and Thaia remove them.

“Yes.” Thaia might’ve answered before Euanthe had finished the question, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

“Goddess, but you’re sentimental as fuck,” said Meir.

Lexi leaned past Thaia to frown at Meir. “You say that as if there’s something wrong with it.”

Meir raised an eyebrow in the steel behind Lexi’s challenge. “Nothing wrong with it at all. Especially if her bondmate loves that about her.”

After frowning at Meir for a good few seconds more, Lexi turned to Euanthe, frown gone. “What’s next?”

“Putting the new ones on and then going out and enjoying being newly bonded.” Euanthe smiled again as she handed them their completed bracelets, and then explained how the latch mechanism worked before excusing herself. “Everything’s paid up, so you’re free to leave whenever you wish.”

Somehow, placing the new bracelet on Lexi’s wrist was more fraught than the actual bonding ceremony had been. Thaia hadn’t given much thought before to the nuances of how Lexi’s skin felt beneath her fingertips, how the pebbled texture of Lexi’s microscales were angled differently than her own, how her pulse was racing by the time she finished securing the latch. She’d thought removing her hands so she wasn’t touching Lexi anymore would ease her anxiety, but she made the mistake of looking Lexi in the eye right afterward.

Then it was like during the ceremony, where she hadn’t been able to look away even when they were separated by the spans of entire star systems. Now she was right there and the intelligence and warmth sparkling behind eyes the best shade of grey captivated Thaia. For an instant, she forgot about burning cheeks and snarled feelings and Harry and Meir’s presence and it was just Lexi.

A single instant turned into a series of instants when Lexi went ahead and secured Thaia’s bracelet, leaving Thaia’s skin tingling wherever Lexi touched. It almost hurt when she pulled away after safely securing the latch.

Thaia wondered if Lexi felt as light-headed as she did when they stood up to leave. Then she wondered what expression must’ve been on her face because Meir didn’t tease her at all once they were outside the store.

Even Harry seemed reluctant to speak at first, like he’d break some kind of reverie. But then he glanced at his omni, started, and said, “I need to get going. I’ve got a meeting with an elcor speech coach on the Presidium in fifteen minutes. Congratulations to you both. Let me know when you’re back from your honeymoon!”

“Elcor speech coach?” Thaia said, because she hadn’t retained a fucking thing Harry had said after _elcor speech coach_.

“Lexi can explain!” Harry shouted over his shoulder as he rushed toward the nearest rapid transit terminal.

Thaia and Meir both looked at Lexi expectantly.

She sighed. “Dermatology told Harry he couldn’t pull off a respectable Blasto-related cosplay at the convention next month if he couldn’t go as Blasto. He’s taking the challenge rather seriously.”

“It isn’t like he can let Dermatology win,” Thaia said. “Good on him.”

“If he needs any help, we’re here,” said Meir.

“Good, you can go help him now.” Thaia shoved Meir in Harry’s direction. “Look, his transport hasn’t left yet. You have time if you hurry.”

Meir didn’t budge, despite being shorter and less muscled than her younger sister. “Oh, no. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

They did not get rid of her that easily. In fact, it took the entire trip back to the apartment to convince her to let them be alone because they had places to go and things to do—_each other_, Meir had informed them, using it as a springboard to launch into a list of things they could do to and with each other over the next week. She gave them the advice loudly, paying zero heed to the other people in the walkways and elevators and transit hubs, keeping up her stream of advice all the way into the apartment.

“None of those things will ever happen if you’re here,” Thaia finally said. And it was true. Even if this whole bonding thing wasn’t supposed to be fake and it was real, nothing to do with other types of bonding would be taking place with Meir around. Especially if she was running her mouth like she had been all morning.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Meir said, finally stepping through the door’s threshold.

Thaia responded by shutting the door in her face. Then she turned and braced her back against the panel in case Meir thought of something else and tried to barge back in. Still leaning there, Thaia checked the tracker for the shuttle she’d bought from Nef. Still there. Good.

Time to make her pitch.

With Lexi giving her a questioning look, Thaia gently tossed the bag with the temporary bracelets onto the kitchen island counter. Then she scrounged in her pocket for an OSD brochure for Aite and brandished it in Lexi’s direction. “How do you feel about krogan ships?”

Though Lexi gave the OSD a curious glance and crossed her arms, she played along with the question. “That it’s the galaxy’s loss with the krogan no longer building them.”

If Thaia had claimed she wasn’t somewhat turned on by that statement, it would’ve been a big fucking lie. “If you say something like that again, I might straight up proposition you.”

“Isn’t that close to what you’re doing right now?”

“Well, not like—fine, sort of but not—so there’s this krogan ship. A derelict ship.”

“With krogan on it?”

Goddess, Lexi didn’t need to sound _that_ skeptical. None of their previous adventures had ever resulted in injury. Okay, major injury. Okay, life-threatening injury. “If there’s anyone on that ship, they’re really old and really pissed about being stranded there for that long.”

The curious spark in Lexi’s eyes strengthened. “How long?”

“Dates back to the Rebellions.” Thaia’s own excitement jumped into her chest because this was a krogan ship, something rarely seen, much less studied, and her excitement about it sprang into her words. “Might even be a warship! And we can explore it together! It’ll be fun, trust me.” Thaia took Lexi by the elbow and led her over to the vid panel in the living area. “Here, I can show you why.” After Lexi settled down on the couch, Thaia popped in the OSD.

A striking view of Aite filled the screen, complete with its faint rings and two moons in the foreground. “This is the planet it’s on, Aite. The view from the ground should be spectacular with its two moons in close orbit and planetary rings that’re visible in the daytime. One of the moons is in an unstable orbit, projected to impact the planet in a couple centuries. That’ll be a show and a half. Anyway, for now, the colony’s less than a hundred years old and understandably sparsely settled because everyone’s going to leave in the next century. It’s kind of lawless, so no one will care or bother us. I got the coordinates from Uncle Khel, who got them from Drack, so they should be good.”

“A moon in an unstable orbit projected to _impact the planet_ isn’t exactly a selling point,” said Lexi, legs now crossed like her arms.

Thaia rolled her eyes. “In a couple hundred years, not within the next week. I mean, I get it, you aren’t as enamored with ships as I am, but it’ll be fun if you’re along. And maybe there’ll be krogan data of some kind you’ve never read before. And!” She activated her omni, brought up the conference passes, and then flipped the display around so Lexi could see. “Even if you end up hating exploring the ship—which you won’t—you’ll still like this.”

It was enough that Lexi uncrossed her legs, unfolded her arms, and leaned forward on her elbows to get a better look. Then her eyes flicked up to Thaia. “You’ll be going, too?”

“Yeah.” Thaia grinned. She’d never miss out on a trip to Tuchanka if she could help it. “Tuchanka’s fun. Plus, you’d be going, so this trip would be even more fun.”

“It’s a literary conference, you realize.”

“One, there’ll be debates. Two, krogan are the only people who toss around tomkahs while reciting epic poems and it’s the best poetry I’ve ever heard. And…” Thaia paused and lowered her voice. “Want to hear a secret?”

“Is it the one where you secretly like some forms of poetry because you appreciate the mathematical tricks done with meter?” Lexi had every right to look as smug as she did when she leaned back because it wasn’t common knowledge. At all.

“How did you know?” No one knew except her mother, Safira, and possibly her dad. Meir and Eirian sure as fuck didn’t know.

“I know _you_,” Lexi said, the smugness disappearing in favor of a fond smile. “Some things are obvious when you know enough to look.”

Thaia blushed and she wasn’t sure why. To cover it up, she turned and retrieved the OSD, gathering herself before she turned back around with a winning smile and probably still some of the flush on her face. “So you’ll go?”

“To the conference? Yes, I would love to. As for voluntarily entering the Terminus Systems? No.”

Hopes nearing dashed, Thaia went for pitiful. “But what if I don’t see it? Ever? I’d be sad.”

“Is it going somewhere?” Lexi rested her arm along the back of the couch. “You did say it was a derelict. As in, abandoned, in poor condition, and unlikely to fly anywhere, much less escape Aite’s atmosphere.”

“But the two moons! The rings! The dust cloud extending twenty-three thousand kilometers from the planet’s core! Those’ll all be gone soon and it’ll just be rubble and no derelict ship.”

“I believe I heard you say that it would be two centuries until the collision?” Skepticism emanated from Lexi, settled and comfortable and not budging in more than one way.

Shit, she might not persuade Lexi on the merits of the trip.

It called for total honesty. Thaia walked over and crouched so she was eye-level with Lexi. “Fine. This is the longest leave I’ll have for a while and probably the longest break you’ll have for a while and patience… is not something I’m known for.” Unable to decide between pitiful or smiling, Thaia opted to sit next to Lexi.

Face impassive, body still, Lexi refused to be moved. “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?”

Thaia gasped. “That was _harsh_, T’Perro. And my point is that you coming with me would make the whole trip more awesome. Awesomer? Possibly the most awesome trip that won’t be outdone by another until we go to watch the collision because there’s no way we’re missing that once in a lifetime event.” She almost jumped when she realized that she’d be surprised if Lexi wasn’t there with her when it happened. 

“While I would love to see the collision with you—from a safe distance—for this particular ridiculous idea of yours, the answer is no, and that’s final.”

Thaia waited.

She wouldn’t truly pressure Lexi and saying anything else would. As it was, she was skirting the line. But Lexi had told her before that she wanted to have more spontaneous experiences in her life, to live in the moment. And Lexi had called her for ideas on what she could do with her unexpected free time. And she’d already agreed to and _gone through with_ an impromptu fake-but-sort-of-real bonding. A short trip to a Terminus Systems planet shouldn’t have been the harder sell.

So, when Thaia noticed that Lexi had briefly bitten her lower lip—and Thaia had to chase away the immediate thought about how she’d like to trace that line tattoo with her—_no_. This was confusing enough as it was. However, the lip-biting was a dead giveaway that Lexi was still considering her decision, so Thaia waited.

The eternity of an awkwardly silent minute passed before Lexi asked, “Are you waiting for me to change my mind?”

“Depends on if it’s working.”

Lexi sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kunoura Bay is the same bay from Tessellation where Thaia's family has a house. It has an _real_ name now.
> 
> Also there's some meta in there that asari—because they historically like to talk things out instead of fighting and the sheer number of debates that take place in their e-democracy—could view going to debates as an actual date-worthy activity.


	4. Emergency Detour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
2\. “Just follow me, I know the area.”  
5\. “I might just kiss you.”  
9\. “There is a certain taste to it.”  
10\. “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me.”  
18\. “Secrets? I love secrets.”

**Sahrabarik System, 2210.**

In retrospect, agreeing to accompany Thaia on an adventurous trip hadn’t been one of Lexi’s best ideas. However, between Thaia’s heartfelt declaration that Lexi’s presence would make it all the better and then her heartbreakingly sad eyes when Lexi had initially refused, making Lexi feel somewhat like a monster, she couldn’t be expected to turn Thaia down. No one could.

There was also the matter of having gone to the extent of bonding in order to find out what Thaia’s plans were and ultimately go on this trip at all.

Then again, had she known in advance that Thaia’s shuttle of questionable condition and dubious origin would nearly break down, requiring them to limp to Omega for a replacement part, Lexi would have reconsidered her agreement.

Next to her, Thaia grimaced the moment they stepped onto the Gozu docks. “The air here tastes like rust and rotten seaweed. Ugh.”

Lexi held in a sigh. “There is a certain taste to it, yes.”

“Please tell me that ‘certain taste’ is limited to here in the docking ring.”

“Usually.” As if bringing attention to Omega’s atmospheric conditions had summoned it, the grit in the air sought out Lexi’s lungs, the stations filters perpetually too overloaded to keep up in public spaces teeming with people. She barely refrained from coughing.

The Gozu District’s docking ring was no exception to crowding, the bay containing multitudes in a diversity not often found in Citadel space. Preaching hanar who quieted down after numerous dark looks from several drell passersby—unlike the majority of drell, those who dwelled on Omega lacked typical drell deference toward hanar. Humans with hard eyes set in rough faces stared down a group of batarians. Turians lacking colony paint offloaded cargo from an elcor-flagged freighter, krogan longshoremen right alongside them. Two Lystheni spoke with a quarian waving an arc-welder. Clicking his fingers together in nervousness, a volus in a resplendent designer enviro-suit observed the negotiation from nearby.

Though not _home_ to her, it was immediately familiar—the clamor of the crowd, the reddish cast to the lighting, her instinctive shift away from the attitude she projected in Citadel space. It wasn’t necessary there, and Lexi hadn’t realized her appreciation that it wasn’t until she had to wear it again on Omega.

She disliked it more each time she returned. “Let’s make this detour as short as possible. I’d rather not an extended stay.”

After completing the shuttle’s lockdown sync, Thaia offered Lexi a winsome smile. “Babe, we’ll be fine. The part we need is common enough that a place as big as Omega will have it somewhere. And there’s a toolkit on the shuttle already. We’ll be on our way to Aite and the derelict in no time.”

Lexi raised an eyebrow at Thaia’s casual use of a term of endearment, but that was her only commentary because she truly didn’t mind. And it would help maintain the façade of their fake bonding. “I’ll reserve judgment for when we’ve safely left this station behind.”

“I’d argue, but that’s probably the better outlook. Where are we going, anyway? You were pretty adamant that we docked specifically on the Gozu ring.”

“Just follow me,” Lexi said as she took Thaia’s hand. “I know the area.”

Hardly had they started toward Gozu’s main thoroughfare when a commotion came from behind them, pitched loud enough that it rose over the the din, joined by a yelled, “That’s her! That’s the one!”

“Sucks to be them,” said Thaia, glancing over her shoulder, trained eyes appraising the tactical situation. “We should get out of here though before we’re caught in a crossfire.”

If only it had been a crossfire situation.

Before Thaia and Lexi had turned back around, the mercenaries—a pack of vorcha and two krogan, which signaled Blood Pack—marched in their direction, shoving people aside and ignoring their ensuing complaints. The vorcha in the lead began firing.

In their direction.

Reflexive biotic barriers sprang to life around them. A bullet skimming off Lexi’s barrier left ozone sharp in her nostrils, overwhelming the smoky-sour scent of the docking bay.

On the first break in weapons fire, Lexi pulled on Thaia’s hand, and then they sprinted toward the closest corridor. Their barriers dissipated when they turned the corner, leaving them to navigate in shadows, but the mercenaries wouldn’t be able to follow a beacon of glowing biotics, either.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Thaia asked in a near whisper.

“Well enough.” They slipped through a crowd the next street over, took a hard right, and then Lexi headed in the direction of the largest Gozu District market. The throngs of people there would prove difficult for the mercenaries to push through, buying them enough time to find a good hiding spot, whether it be to regroup or stay until their pursuers were gone. If they were fortunate, the Blue Suns running security for the marketplace would end up fighting the Blood Pack mercenaries.

With the market entrance in sight, Lexi slowed down to a walk and brought Thaia in closer so they were shoulder-to-shoulder, appearing as nothing more than a couple out for a stroll. It also meant they didn’t alert the two turians on guard duty they passed as they entered.

A typical Omegan evening market greeted them—a milling crowd lit by flashes from the ever-changing advertisements lining the walls and brightly-colored illuminated shop signs, along with the scent of cooking food wafting through the cavernous room.

“We should find a place to hide,” Thaia said quietly once there were a number of people between them and the market entrance. “And not make it obvious that we’re trying to hide from people who are trying to kill us and I have no fucking idea _why_.”

“Then we need to make people think we’re hiding for another reason.” Lexi looked around them, checking each of the several market entrances visible from their position—two krogan were crossing the room at a fast clip. Luckily, she and Thaia hadn't yet been spotted, but luck like that wouldn't hold for long. She tugged Thaia closer and then whispered, “I might just kiss you. Don’t act surprised.”

The startled look Thaia gave her was entirely _how could I not be? _However, she merely nodded instead of voicing her skepticism and thank the goddess for small favors because if Thaia _had_ given voice to her thought, said voice would likely have been loud.

To be fair to her, were their situations reversed, Lexi would feel the same skepticism, accompanied by no small amount of curiosity and the sudden realization that she might not mind, were it to become necessary.

Lexi became acutely aware of Thaia’s fingers intertwined with her own as she led them on a winding route between market-goers, aiming for a dark alcove tucked between a batarian kebab stall and an elcor-run bookshop. It required them to get by the kebab queue that consisted mostly of elcor waiting for the next batch to finish frying up. As a result, the elcor customers were bored and it made them chatty and the sight of two asari dashing off alone provided them good entertainment if their commentary was anything to go by.

“Truthfully,” said the first one who noticed them, “you aren’t fooling anyone.”

“With mild disgust,” said the next in line, “that area is unsanitary.”

A third lumbered around, reserving his comment until after he saw the pair. “Exasperatedly: all you maidens are the same.”

The first’s eyes flicked between Thaia and Lexi and then to the third elcor. “Patronizingly: their pheromones say otherwise. False concern: do you have a cold? Because it is obvious they are matrons.”

Lexi again thanked the goddess that Thaia wisely chose to not engage them in conversation, allowing them to get past the queue without a significant delay. But they had one more obstacle before them that wasn’t deadly so much as potentially time-consuming and embarrassing for Lexi because the bookshop was her favorite bookshop and its elcor owner—Iwal—had known her for over two centuries. He even obtained Advanced Reading Copies of books from unscrupulous dealers and resold them to her so she didn’t have to wait to read anything new in her favorite series. She did, however, purchase a legal copy after the book was published.

Goddess, if they’d had the time, she would’ve loved to stop and browse. Perhaps before they left for Aite. There was plenty of room remaining on the bookshelves in the apartment. Even if there wasn’t, they could easily add more, like they’d done after Thaia had installed the surprisingly appealing and tasteful display for her Destiny Ascension model.

The moment Thaia and Lexi went to casually saunter past the shop’s wide front entrance, Iwal lumbered through. “Enthusiastically: Lexi, we have a paper ARC of the newest book in the Chronicles of the Armalian Peninsula in stock.”

Lexi halted so quickly that she accidentally jerked Thaia forward, causing her to stumble. Since she was perfectly fine, Lexi turned to Iwal. “You _do_?” The publication date for _Naumakhia’s Fall_ wasn’t scheduled for five more months and Lexi had been waiting for three years already. In addition, Iwal hadn’t been able to obtain ARCs for the past three publications. This was a potential windfall.

Then Thaia waved her free hand in front of Lexi’s face. “Babe, it’s adorable how much you love those books but now isn’t the time.”

“With mild amusement,” said Iwal, “nice catch, Lexi.”

Torn between saying _thank you_ or _honestly, Iwal_, _you aren’t helping and you know it_, Lexi said nothing.

“Ha!” crowed Thaia. “I’m a nice catch! You hear that?”

“Now isn’t the time.” Lexi pulled on Thaia’s hand to make sure she got the hint. “Thank you, Iwal, but it’ll have to wait.”

“Fondly: ah, young love. Encouragingly: go have your fun.”

“We’ve got your friend fooled,” Thaia said as they finally reached the alcove.

Lexi decided it was best she not remind Thaia about the highly attuned olfactory senses of elcor or their ability to interpret the most subtle body language. Or remind herself, for that matter, lest she wonder what exactly it was Iwal had learned from them. Instead, they cautiously made their way into the shadows until they found a position relatively free of refuse on the floor and grime on the walls. Thaia stayed in place, standing equidistant from the walls, her breathing normal despite their having sprinted through several blocks. While Lexi was fit, she was nowhere near the fitness level of an active commando. So it took her a few moments to regain control of her own breathing. Then she joined Thaia in looking out into the market to locate the krogan.

Having reached the center of the market, the krogan were arguing with a human and two turians wearing Blue Suns armor. The Omegan crowd gave them only a modicum of extra space. Arguments and fights like the one brewing in the middle of a market happened too often to allow them to affect daily life unless firearms were involved. While concerning to Lexi as a physician, the crowd refusing to surrender space fortunately continued to provide cover for herself and Thaia.

“I don’t think they’ve seen us yet,” Thaia said. “Wait, fuck, they’re—”

One hand still holding Thaia’s, Lexi used the flat of the other to shove Thaia against the wall. Then she curled her fingers into the cloth of Thaia’s shirt and pulled her down into a kiss. Despite the warning Lexi had given earlier, Thaia let out a muffled squeak and went rigid.

She was going to get them killed. Was subterfuge no longer part of commando training?

Lexi leaned away just far enough to speak yet still close enough to kiss her again because they would need to if they were to maintain their cover and survive. “You need to _not_ look surprised, remember?” Lexi said against Thaia’s lips, hoping it looked like she was whispering sweet nothings to a lover. “They won’t be convinced if you’re awkward and stiff. Convince me and you’ll convince them, too_._”

Thaia’s eyes, hooded in counterpoint to the widened surprised from a moment ago, darted down to Lexi’s mouth before searching her eyes. “You want me to convince you?” The new rasp to her voice brought danger with it.

But the greater danger—the life-threatening danger—was hunting them in the market. “Yes.”

She’d scarcely agreed before she was swept against the plasteel wall behind her, Thaia’s free hand grasping her hip while the other pinned their joined hands above Lexi’s head. Then seeking lips descended on hers, achingly supple where they’d been deceptively inflexible before and the noise of market faded into nothing, forgotten. Forgotten as fully as how much of a mistake this should have been.

Reason fled in the feel of Thaia’s muscled body along her own, her skin burning under Thaia’s palm when she adjusted her grip on Lexi’s hand only to pin it against the wall again.

The lone unconvincing aspect of this was that it could ever be a mistake.

The tip of Thaia’s tongue traced her lower lip only to infuriate by withdrawing, Lexi tolerating it three times until she chased out of vexation, taking Thaia’s lower lip between her own and drawing her further down. Her free hand slipped behind Thaia’s neck to keep her there so she could properly explore instead of the stolen small tastes that only left her wanting. Wanting, even as Thaia groaned before reciprocating, the teases from earlier wiped from memory as Thaia met her in kind. When Lexi’s fingers idly brushed along the folds on the back of Thaia’s neck, Thaia’s dug into her hip.

The strength of a sudden want awakening from a long slumber seared through Lexi’s limbs and she tugged Thaia closer still yet it wasn’t close enough. Not nearly close enough to the person whom she hadn’t fully realized she wanted in every way until now, humming in pleasure when Thaia descended to press kisses under her jaw.

Only for the warmth spreading through her body to be torn away by a shrill whistle from right outside the alcove. “Hey, lovebirds!”

Thaia pushed herself away from Lexi with such force that she bumped into the opposite wall.

An asari whom Lexi thought she recognized was poking her head into the alcove. “Like you’re fooling anyone.” The asari scoffed to make her point clear. “I swear to the goddess that young matrons are worse than young maidens. Anyway, you’ve got about five minutes before those idiot mercs realize they’re chasing the wrong people. Don’t get killed and you can finish your make out session later, hopefully somewhere more sanitary. Like a trash heap.” Then she was gone.

But not before Lexi figured out who it was—her stepfather, Celaeno. Goddess help her, this was going to go down in infamy and she would never hear the end of it.

“Um,” Thaia said, squinting at the alcove’s entrance, “I think that means the coast is clear? If she isn’t working with the mercs.”

Lexi held in a sigh. “She isn’t.”

“How do you know?” Thaia asked, apparently her curiosity choosing that moment to light itself on fire.

The blaze of Thaia’s curiosity was another part of her that Lexi loved, part of the whole person whom Lexi…

Oh, no.

_No_. No time. “Listen,” she said to Thaia, “I can’t explain it right now. You’ll have to trust me.”

“But—”

Goddess but Thaia could be trying and especially so at the worst moments. Lexi took her hand in hers again. “We don’t have the time,” she said once Thaia looked directly at her. “Do you trust me or not?”

Once piqued, even complete trust couldn’t quell Thaia’s curiosity. “I trust you absolutely, but who—”

Lexi went with the technique that had recently yielded stunning results. She pulled Thaia forward and kissed her, successfully shutting her up long enough for Thaia’s curiosity about their unknown-to-her helper to be eclipsed by a want that reflected Lexi’s own.

“Let’s go!” said Lexi.

Though the market was thick with Blue Suns mercenaries, the Blood Pack was nowhere to be seen. Good enough. Lexi led Thaia past the bookshop—Iwal was thankfully inside and didn’t see them the second time—and then they left the market through a side exit that would bring them into Gozu’s industrial sector. They cut across two dimly lit streets, skirted a manufacturing facility and crossed over a supply rail running in front of a deserted factory construction site before Lexi stopped catch her breath.

After finally relinquishing her hold on Thaia’s hand, Lexi checked the map Celaeno had thoughtfully sent her minutes ago against what her omni showed her. Beside her, Thaia remained as silent as her footsteps. After what had happened between them in the alcove, the silence from Thaia now might as well have been shouting every unspoken question, including the one about the person who’d interrupted them.

Route picked, Lexi readied to leave again. If they could get to her mother’s apartment, further Blood Pack patrols would cease to be a problem. Lexi also needed to tell Thaia what her mother did for a living before they got there. Thaia knew Soraya was alive and well, yet was in the dark about Soraya’s employer and the true nature of her job. It wasn’t that Lexi meant to hide it from her—Thaia was nonjudgmental and trustworthy enough to know. It was that Lexi was so used to not speaking about it that she had truly forgotten until now.

Or, rather, when her stepfather had happened upon them in the alcove.

Lexi resisted another sigh.

“Do you smell eezo?” Thaia asked, the first thing she’d said since they’d left the market.

“It’s dust from the empty railcars nearby.” Lexi glanced down the tracks and located the suspect railcars resting on a spur.

“Oh, right. There’s a whole-ass eezo mine on this station.” Thaia glanced downward, in the direction of the mine below. “Eezo’s familiar enough where I don’t feel as out of place. So there’s that. Doesn’t feel like the bay, though.”

Strangely, for Lexi, the faint scent of eezo evoked not childhood memories from Omega, but more recent ones. Memories from her visits with Thaia to Kunoura Bay—the sunlit waters of the Armali coast instead of the Omega’s red twilight. Her fingers drifted to the bracelet on her wrist that had felt strangely natural from the moment Thaia had clasped it there. When she twisted her arm enough for the flickering street lamp to highlight the blue-imbued waves of its intrinsic pattern, it hit her why the bracelet evoked such strong feelings of familiarity.

“That’s what it is. The patterns in the bracelets are remarkably similar to the patterns of eezo in the waves on the bay,” she said in a quiet revelation. “Especially when it’s glowing on the sand before dawn.” Then she looked over to see if Thaia had noticed the same.

Thaia smiled brilliantly at her, entire body brimming over with whatever joy Lexi’s statement had brought. “It is,” she finally said, the rasp in her voice having returned with a vengeance.

Lexi wanted to hear it every day for as long as the future granted them.

“There they are!” came a shout from a krogan, followed by howls from several vorcha.

“I see ‘em!” another krogan yelled back.

However, her newfound wished-for future wouldn’t be too terribly long if the Blood Pack had anything to do with it.

“Run!” Thaia tightened her hold on Lexi’s hand and sprinted into the half-finished factory. They had plenty of cover but, aside from their biotics, they hadn’t much in terms of weapons if they were forced to fight back. Their best bet was to evade their determined pursuers.

“Do you really not have any idea why they seem to want you dead?” Lexi asked as they scrambled behind a cargo container roughly a meter tall.

“No!” Thaia peeked over the container and quickly crouched back down, bullets zinging over their heads. “Today’s the first time I’ve seen a Blood Pack merc in fucking decades.”

A rumble came from the entrance and while Lexi wasn’t sure what it was, Thaia identified it immediately. “Are you fucking _kidding me_? Missiles?!”

An explosion a few meters away confirmed it, tremors running through the floor when a section of scaffolding collapsed.

“Missiles. Fucking missiles. Do they have no concept of overkill?” Grumbling, Thaia retrieved the Acolyte she’d strapped to her leg before they’d left the shuttle. “People are firing fucking missiles at us and I’m not wearing armor. Fuck.”

“Maybe you should have brought your leathers.” Lexi had meant to say so earlier, partly out of safety and partly for her own personal benefit: she greatly enjoyed seeing Thaia wearing those commando leathers. “It isn’t as if Aite doesn’t pose some danger.”

She scowled. “I’m on _vacation_. I don’t want to wear leathers while on vacation, especially after spending three fucking months wearing them more than anything else. Besides, it isn’t like you’re wearing your scrubs.”

“Because I don’t require scrubs to effectively treat someone. However, I did bring a high-level medkit so I wasn’t without the tools of my trade. Unlike you.”

Thumb over the safety, Thaia indicated the pistol in her right hand. “I brought my Acolyte. And neither of us are ever without biotics.”

“Your barrier breaks, there’s nothing else left to stop bullets.”

Eyes bright, Thaia smirked at her. “Nothing except my etalis-like reflexes.”

“Thaia, even _justicars_ can’t dodge bullets.”

“No, but I heard they can stop them.” Another hail of bullets impacted the wall behind them, accompanied by the growls and snarls of vorcha flooding the empty factory. Thaia grimaced. “Be nice if either of us could because I’m going to be upset if I have to kill anyone while on vacation.”

“You aren’t the only one who can defend herself.” There was no rancor in Lexi’s statement; it was only a reminder that Thaia wasn’t in this fight alone.

“I know you can. But if any killing has to be done, it should be me because it’s part of my job description.” A tendril of regret twined through Thaia’s tone, briefly reflected in her eyes when she looked at her. “Lexi, someone who’s dedicated her life to keeping people alive shouldn’t have to end any. That’s what commandos are for—so you and other people like you don’t have to.”

Lexi wondered about the strength of Thaia’s regret, but they hadn’t the time for further inquiry. “Okay, but I won’t hesitate if it’s necessary.”

“I know. I trust you to watch my back.” Then the mischievousness returned with Thaia’s grin. “And my backside.”

“You’re seriously flirting right now?” Lexi asked, replacing the laugh that wanted to bubble out with a roll of her eyes.

“Why not? It’s the perfect time. Bullets flying around, krogan trying to hunt us down, vorcha running toward us with—” The unmistakable sound of a charging flamethrower cut through the cavernous room. “Shit, they’ve got flamethrowers?” Barrier glowing around her body, Thaia peered over the edge of the container. “Yeah, they’re setting shit on fire. Fuck.” She ducked down. “Did your omni happen to record any exits?”

“Across the room.” Keeping her hand where only Thaia could see, Lexi pointed toward the exit. “There.”

Thaia leaned slightly out from behind the container and this time wasn’t met with a volley of gunfire. “They’re torching everything, but the fire’s blocking their line of sight.” After scooting back into cover, she holstered the Acolyte. “Can you do a biotic charge?”

“No, the majority of my training involved ranged skills.” For the first time in her life, Lexi wished she’d learned some close-quarters techniques.

“All right, so here’s what we’ll do.” Thaia peeked another time and then looked directly into Lexi’s eyes. “I’m going to get their attention. Once I have it, you run outside first. I can catch up quick with a charge.”

Something critical was missing in Thaia’s plan, namely how to prevent the Blood Pack from continuing their pursuit. “What about the Blood Pack intent on chasing us to the ends of the station?”

Thaia flashed a confident grin. “A couple detonations that’ll bring this place onto their heads. It’ll slow them down enough for us to get away clean.”

“And you won’t have killed anyone.”

“That’s the secondary goal here. The most important thing is for us to not die.” Thaia briefly evaluated the room over the top of the container, and then gently touched Lexi on the shoulder. “Be ready to run. Use your best judgment on when to go. I’ll be right behind you.”

Seeking reassurance that Thaia wasn’t about to attempt some foolhardy action that could get her killed in the name of making sure Lexi came out the other side of this unscathed, Lexi searched her eyes.

The corner of Thaia’s lips quirked. “Babe, we’ll be fine.”

“Goddess,” Lexi said, struggling to hold in what should have been an impossible laugh, “we need to have a chat about this new habit of yours.”

“If we survive, you have to let me keep using it. That’s the rule.” She took a deep breath. “I promise I’ll be right behind you. Now let’s go!” Enveloped in an offense-oriented biotic corona, Thaia leapt over the container and threw the first two vorcha in the fire line into three in the back.

When the smoke from the fires finally reached her, Lexi’s pulse raced.

Distracted by the growls of protest rising from the tangle of vorcha, the rest of the Blood Pack looked toward them and away from Lexi and Thaia. Lexi took the opportunity to run for the exit. At first, Thaia’s footsteps were right behind her, but then she broke off when the Blood Pack pressed their attack. “Go!” Thaia shouted at Lexi when she hesitated. “I’ve got this! I’ll be right behind you!” Then, running backward, Thaia slung the singularity she’d been forming in her hand into a pile of unopened cargo containers.

The next time Lexi looked over her shoulder, Thaia had skidded to a stop. The krogan commander bellowing at them, two vorcha were actively reloading rocket launchers. The rest of the vorcha held their flamethrowers high as they howled when it appeared Thaia was within reach. As Lexi exited the building, she saw Thaia spin and arc a throw into the singularity. It hit right as the largest clump of mercenaries ran past.

The explosion boomed through the factory, shaking the walls and blowing out the rest of the scaffolding. Molten hot shrapnel sliced through the air, shredding everything in its path from cargo containers to heavy equipment to unfortunate krogan and vorcha mercenaries. Lexi could only hear ringing in her head when she threw herself to the ground, the shrapnel flaring brighter when it skipped off her barrier.

Everything went quiet.

Then came the occasional plink of rubble hitting the floor.

Lexi’s chest constricted, cold running up her spine because the quiet meant Thaia wasn’t talking. Thaia could be injured. Thaia could be unconscious or _worse_ and Lexi didn’t have her medkit on her. And here she’d teased Thaia for not wearing her leathers.

Through the settling dust, Lexi sighted two mercenaries, one krogan and one vorcha, who turned and ran from the destruction. She had a feeling they wouldn’t be returning. Krogan were perfectly capable of risk assessment. If they weren’t, the Blood Pack wouldn’t be sending their vorcha members into dangerous situations first.

With steady steps, Lexi ventured into the wreck of the construction site. The rest of the mercenaries were dead, their bodies rendered unrecognizable due to the violence of the explosion. Goddess.

From amidst the rubble came Thaia’s voice saying, “What the fuck?”

Then bent and broken steel scaffolding creaked as Thaia crawled out from behind a wall reduced to rubble and slowly got to her feet. Though she appeared coherent and without obvious injury, Lexi ran over to evaluate her further. Just to be sure.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Thaia said when Lexi got closer, a frown emerging as she took in the scene.

Lexi raised a brow but her question was gently posed. “The detonation?”

“No, that was intended. But it wasn’t supposed to be that big. And destructive. And…” Thaia glanced down at her clothing and paled. “And it wasn’t supposed to be messy.”

A piece of the krogan commander’s headplate had stuck to the shoulder of Thaia’s shirt. Two smaller pieces were on her torso. Lexi moved to stand in front of Thaia and picked them off, flicking them away before Thaia saw all of them.

“Thanks,” Thaia said after she’d taken a few breaths. “Still can’t believe you aren’t grossed out by stuff like that.”

Lexi dusted off Thaia’s shoulders in case anything had been missed. “I’m a doctor. I have seen _far_ worse.” After confirming that Thaia exhibited no obvious concussion symptoms—her eyes were clear, her gait steady—Lexi checked Thaia’s arms for injuries. She brushed them off as she went, including the dust obscuring the metal of her bonding bracelet.

There. Thaia had escaped unscathed, so Lexi could finally breathe normally. And, though she didn’t want to think on the reasons why, feeling the bracelet still there had played part in that relief.

Thaia’s eyes skipped over the majority of the destruction she’d not—by her own admission—intended to wreak and landed on the exit she and Lexi had run for earlier. “Let’s go before anyone else gets any ideas.” Then she took Lexi’s hand and started on their way out. “Or the cops show up. Does Omega even have cops?”

“No.” Another wave of relief swept through Lexi when they left the construction site behind. At Thaia’s urging, she took the lead. It was about time they get themselves to safety. “Mercenary companies are usually hired to perform that job. For the vast majority of this district, it’s the Blue Suns.”

“That explains why there were so fucking many of them in the market.” She perked up, liveliness bringing her shoulders out of their slump and the spark returned to her eyes. “Speaking of the market! _Now_ can you tell me how you knew that person wasn’t working with those mercs?”

“I could,” Lexi said slowly. She had to give herself a little time to adjust from dreading a discussion of what _exactly_ had happened between them in that alcove, because either they were both exceptional actors or there could be something else going on. But Lexi wasn’t ready for that talk it appeared Thaia wasn’t, either. “But it’s a secret.”

Thaia leaned down, mischievousness there again. “Secrets? I love secrets.”

“You may not like this one.” Lexi brought them to a halt at the edge of the transportation hub between the industrial sector and one of Gozu’s residential sectors. Then she turned and studied Thaia’s deep blue eyes, making sure the trust she’d found there every time before still existed.

It was there as it had been since the beginning—when Thaia had trusted Lexi to painlessly reduce her dislocated shoulder.

While also hitting on her eleven separate times. Harry, a witness, had kept count, while also reminding Lexi that she hadn’t objected a single time.

“All right, here goes.” Lexi brought her hands up to frame Thaia’s face. “Are you ready to meet my mother?”

“_What?_” Thaia literally reeled before recovering to stare at Lexi. “What’s that have to do with anything and I need a little more warning if I’m going to be meeting an in-law for the first time. But how is your mother being alive a secret? I’ve known about that. I mean, it did slip my mind that she’s on Omega right now and so are we, but I would’ve remembered eventually. When we aren’t being chased by mercs.”

“The secret is what my mother does for work. Mum’s one of Aria T’Loak’s longest-serving lieutenants.”

“Oh, _fuck me_. Did you say longest-serving? Meaning—wait, how high up in Aria’s organization is she?”

Lexi let out a beleaguered breath. “She works directly with Aria.”

If the situation hadn’t been what it was, the blood draining from Thaia’s face would’ve been amusing. At least her stunned silence made it easy to get them back on their way. “Come on. We’re nearly there. It’ll be safe in her apartment. We can shower, get something to eat, and we both need some sleep.”

“In the same bed?” Thaia asked, slightly dazed.

“We’ve shared a bed practically every time you’ve come home. This won’t be any different.”

Thaia’s dubious look aimed her way shared each and every doubt Lexi had, as well. Neither of them spoke those doubts out loud. There were other, more pressing matters to deal with first. Namely, finding a way to get the Blood Pack to stop trying to kill them.

Their trip into the residential sector went without interruption from mercenaries. Blood Pack mercenaries, specifically, because the outer residential area was heavily patrolled by the Blue Suns. The smaller, inner residential area’s patrols were left to employees of the most powerful conglomerate on Omega—Aria T’Loak’s. From the front, the patrols of Aria’s operatives appeared to be fewer in number than the Blue Suns, but that was only because many of them were former commandos or other infiltrator-types, and they were careful to not be seen. Aria didn’t require showy displays to prove her power. It simply was and everyone knew it.

Yet she wasn’t so short-sighted as to neglect security at all. This was a residential area with a population consisting mostly of Aria’s senior employees and their families. Providing a safe—as safe as any area on Omega could be made—place for those families to live went a long way in maintaining loyalty.

It also meant that someone had more likely than not informed Soraya that her daughter was there. Though Soraya would already have known, either when Lexi and Thaia had docked earlier, or definitely after Lexi’s stepfather had spotted them in the market. She would’ve immediately and gleefully messaged Soraya afterward. It wasn’t that Lexi didn’t have a friendly relationship with Celaeno. She very much did. But Celaeno had a certain way with words paired with a certain matriarchal attitude that resulted in very vocal opinions, many of them objections to every single one of Lexi’s exes because none of them, in her opinion, were good enough for her stepdaughter. Now, Lexi wasn’t sure what was going to happen when she dropped in unannounced, complete with an equally-as-unannounced new fake-but-real bondmate in tow.

Nothing left to do but talk to them like a well-adjusted adult.

Lexi led Thaia through a side entrance of an empty warehouse. Thaia shot her a confused look that only grew more confused when Lexi brought them out a different side door. The pathway the exit left them on led to a small complex consisting of buildings similar to most on Omega: nondescript, the metal exterior grungy from dust and grime impossible to keep away. Yet it was structurally sound and, in this case, exceptionally secure.

And there, lounging against the wall next to the front door, was Celaeno.

“Wait,” said Thaia, abruptly halting without letting go of Lexi’s hand, forcing Lexi spin around to face her. “Wait, wait. I think that merc from earlier followed us. See? Over there by the door. She could be staking out the place.”

Lexi couldn’t help the sigh that escaped. “She lives there.”

Thaia slowly turned from peering at Celaeno to ask Lexi, “Is she your mother? I mean she’s kind of short to be your mother, but she—shit, did your _mother_ catch us making—”

“No.” She’d had to cut Thaia off before the nascent panic speeding up Thaia’s words got out of hand because they absolutely would. Then Lexi made the mistake of looking in Celaeno’s direction.

Celaeno waved.

_Goddess_.

Lexi returned the wave without half as much enthusiasm.

“So obviously you know her,” said Thaia. “She an older sister? Cousin? Aunt? Former tutor? Swimming coach?”

“Stepfather. Celaeno and my mother have been happily bonded for well over a century.”

Thaia stared at Lexi for a moment before she threw both arms in the air. “You have a stepfather and you never told me? Babe, what the fuck?”

Celaeno burst into laughter. “See you two lovebirds inside!” Then she disappeared through the front door.

“You know,” Thaia said, finally speaking at a volume low enough that everyone within a three-block radius wouldn’t overhear, “I was hoping I’d imagined that part.”

Lexi sighed again and took one of Thaia’s hands. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.”


	5. Rest Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
8\. “Can you stay?”  
14\. “I can’t come back.”  
17\. “There is just something about them/her/him.”  
26\. “You keep me warm.”

**Omega, 2210.**

Lexi and Thaia had hardly taken two steps through the door before Soraya had Lexi wrapped in a hug. Then she took a step back and examined her daughter with a caring, yet critical eye. “Your clothes are filthy.” Then Soraya looked at Thaia, standing awkwardly beside them. “And yours are even _filthier_. I’ve half a mind to throw you in the bath before we’re even properly introduced.”

“What she means to ask is,” Celaeno said as she strolled into the living room, drying purple-skinned hands on a kitchen towel, “can you stay? And the answer is yes, in case either of you thought there was another option.”

“What would make you say that?” asked Lexi.

Celaeno threw the towel over her shoulder and began ticking reasons off on her fingers. “Your shuttle’s broken; you don’t have anything on you except the clothes you’re wearing; where were you even going in the first place; we’re happy to see you bonded but why didn’t you say anything before you went and did it; and, finally, the Blood Pack has been trying to kill you since the moment you stepped foot on this station and no one knows why.”

“What she means is that we’re doing this for you,” said Soraya.

“We’ve been hearing that a lot lately,” said Thaia.

Celaeno raised a brow at her. “Maybe you wouldn’t be hearing it so much if you listened.”

“_Ow_.” Thaia mimed being stabbed, but stopped short of actually touching her shirt. “You could’ve at least told me your name before you murdered me with words.”

Introductions went smoothly after that. Smoothly enough where Lexi became somewhat suspicious as to what had and had not been said about the market before she and Thaia arrived here. Smoothly enough that Thaia and Lexi’s explanation for the ‘fake-but-real bonding’ wasn’t heavily questioned. Smoothly enough that Lexi wondered exactly how much Soraya and Celaeno had known previous to Thaia and Lexi arriving on their doorstep.

“So.” Celaeno stood behind one of the two sofas cornered around a low, square glass-topped table in the living area. “The both of you will stay here and get something to eat, get some rest, get the shuttle problem sorted, get the Blood Pack problem sorted, and get cleaned up.” She evaluated Thaia again as Thaia continued to hover near the door. “Not necessarily in that order. Soraya’s not wrong about the state of your clothes. Don’t sit on anything. Also, be prepared to accept that those clothes might—no, _will_ need to be incinerated.”

Thaia glanced down at herself and wrinkled her nose. “I agree, but I don’t have anything else with me right now.”

“Soap isn’t a problem. Clothes could be. There’s no way you’re going to fit into anything I have when you’re almost a whole head taller than me.” Celaeno shot a sly smile at Lexi. “Your kids—the ones you looked like you were ready to get a head start on having when I caught you two in the alcove—are going to be freakishly tall.”

Lexi sighed.

Thaia outright blushed. “It was a cover,” she managed to say, sounding as weak as said excuse.

“I believe we were discussing clothing?” Lexi’s redirection was entirely transparent, but she’d work with what she had. “Thaia doesn’t fit into anything of mine, so she isn’t going to fit into Mum’s, either. But the clothes she’s wearing now could be classified as a biohazard with how much organic—”

“Please don’t.” Thaia’s voice had weakened further and her skin had paled. “It would be mortifying to puke in front of my in-laws after I’ve just met them.”

Celaeno let out a low whistle. “Wow, she really is as squeamish as you said, Lexi.”

“You told them I was squeamish? Why would you tell them that? Why would that even _come up_?” It was if Thaia’s indignance had refueled her ability to speak at a normal level. It likely had.

“In normal conversation a daughter has with her family about her best friend roommate curiously turned bondmate. But we have more pressing things to discuss right now.” Soraya’s omni display appeared over her arm and her tone turned business-like, ordering others around without a second thought, a habit reinforced by her job. “Thaia, give me the access codes to your shuttle and I’ll send some of my people down to pick up your belongings. Unlike the two of you, they won’t be hassled. Dust and dirt is one thing, but I’ve experience with the type of muck on your shirt. It’ll never come out of the upholstery, so you’ll need to get in the shower after you send me the codes.” While Thaia synced the codes over to Soraya’s omni, Soraya turned her attention to Lexi. “Your shower can wait but you’ll need to change your clothes. Your things are in your room.”

“Lexi still has a room here?” Thaia asked, unfairly incredulous, in Lexi’s opinion. It wasn’t like Thaia didn’t have bedrooms of her own in her family’s homes in Armali and Kunoura Bay.

“We’ve got two extra bedrooms,” said Soraya. “Why wouldn’t I keep one for my baby?”

Thaia slapped a hand over her mouth but it didn’t fully muffle her laugh. 

“Don’t say a word,” Lexi told her.

Thaia’s shoulders shook with the laughs she desperately tried to hold in. 

Lexi honed her statement into a deadly edge. “Don’t you dare.”

There were legitimately tears in Thaia’s eyes and possibly an apology in them when she broke. “She called you _my_ _baby_,” she said through giggles. 

Lexi folded her arms over her chest, annoyed that some of her outrage was subsumed by how much she liked the vivacity the laughter lent to Thaia’s eyes. “Shall I tell them what your mother calls you?”

The giggles vanished. “No! No, you shouldn’t!”

“Fair’s fair,” said Celaeno.

Soraya nodded. “Let’s hear it. In fact, I believe Thaia should be the one to tell us.”

“Waterbug,” Thaia muttered toward the floor.

“I don’t think they heard you,” said Lexi.

Thaia heaved a sigh and looked up at the ceiling. “Waterbug.”

“We parents are uniquely talented at nicknaming our kids,” said Soraya. “Now, off with you to the shower, Waterbug. Towels are in the linen closet next to the bathroom.” She gestured toward the apartment’s lone hallway. It was short, only serving as a hub for bedroom and bathroom doors. The rest of the apartment was open-concept. For asari, it was form following function for their communal nature. “The bathroom is down the hall. First door on the left. Go.” Then she pointed at Lexi when Thaia had gone. “And you go change before you even think about sitting down.”

When Lexi returned to the living area, she found both Soraya and Celaeno casually sitting side-by-side on one of the two sofas.

Waiting.

Waiting for _her_, specifically.

“Come sit,” Soraya said. Though calm, her concern was clear. “We need to talk.”

Lexi wasn’t worried, not exactly. Both her mother’s facial expression and the tone of her voice were similar to what had preceded talks they’d had before—talks dealing with the line of Lexi’s failed relationships and the unsuitability all of her exes. It wasn’t like Lexi hadn’t known this conversation was coming. By any standard for any parenting species, it was necessary when a child—juvenile or adult—did something wildly unexpected and possibly detrimental.

But Lexi couldn’t see how whatever it was that existed between herself and Thaia could be detrimental because, unlike all of Lexi’s exes, Thaia understood. She understood how much Lexi’s work tended to occupy her mind. She understood that it didn’t lessen their relationship and accepted it as an intrinsic part of her—loving her for it instead of holding it against her. In return, Lexi saw in Thaia how the mischief she liked to cause arose from her inherent gregariousness. Thaia wanted to include as many people as she possibly could in the fun. There were people, such as the diplomats at the embassy, who viewed some of Thaia’s behavior to be appalling, as if Thaia were thoughtless and uncaring. Lexi knew she wasn’t. Thaia was the complete opposite. She wanted people to be able have fun and be happy because she cared with every over-enthusiastic part of her being. And anyone who couldn’t see it, anyone who didn’t love her for it, was wrong.

Lexi sat down on the corner of the other sofa in the room, her back to the hallway, on the side closest to Soraya and Celaeno. Then she crossed her legs and turned to them. “What is it?”

Soraya leaned back, fingers on her chin as she studied her daughter. “I’m working from the assumption that this bonding has something to do with what you’ve explained to me before about Thaia needing to have a guarantor to get into the Citadel. But I’m not sure how.”

That was relatively simple to explain, though Lexi had to fight a smile at the memory of those two entire squads of commandos being so enthusiastically supportive of Thaia while the two captains and a priestess explained Thaia’s predicament. When Lexi explained the sequence of events that had led to this moment here on Omega, she wished she had the same backup because Soraya and Celaeno could not possibly have looked more dubious.

Finishing her explanation did nothing to change either of their expressions. 

Soraya hadn’t shifted her position at all. “Let me make sure I’ve gotten this straight. On discovering that you had an unexpected break, you immediately called Thaia. Then Thaia conjured up a surprise plan on the spot, but she needed to get onto the Citadel because that’s where her shuttle was. And since she had no guarantors on the Citadel, the plan suddenly became for you to bond so she would then have one?”

“Essentially.”

“I get the whole time constraint thing. I do. It’s hard to coordinate spending time together with a doctor—“

“Or a commando,” said Celaeno.

“I was getting to that,” Soraya said after shooting her an exasperated look. Then she returned to Lexi. “I was going to add that it’s twice as hard when the other person in the relationship is a commando. And I do understand why she had her shuttle docked at the Citadel while on a field exercise—it makes sense, what with her living with you whenever she’s there, which is on every leave she has. But here’s what I don’t get: why didn’t you have Thaia send _you_ the access codes for the shuttle? Then you could have flown to Lusia to pick _her_ up and gone from there.”

Lexi stiffened, bothered by the fact that not only could she not remember, but the reason for her lack of recollection was that it may not have been brought up. “I don’t recall.”

Celaeno raised an untattooed brow. “Did you ask?

“I don’t think I did.” The issue was that Lexi didn’t know how to explain why she’d gone along with any of this. But there were simple facts she could concentrate on. Such as, Thaia would never purposefully put her in danger. She could also be trusted with Lexi’s emotions as much as Lexi trusted her own family. In the end, she knew without a doubt that Thaia’s intentions were good. Getting bonded to go on whatever adventure Thaia had come up with seemed as natural and safe as breathing. And it wasn’t a price to pay at all for taking a trip with her best friend. So if Thaia believed their only recourse was bonding so they could begin their adventure, Lexi had no trouble believing her. “There’s just something about her, Mum. I trust her. Implicitly.”

“Obviously or you wouldn’t have agreed to bond on that flimsy of a premise. My baby’s more rational than that.”

Something else Lexi could properly address. “As I just explained, it’s a cover. It isn’t supposed to be real.”

“Really?” Soraya extended her hand. “Let’s see that bracelet of yours.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Celaeno laughed. “It’s literally a bonding bracelet.”

As Soraya turned Lexi’s wrist over and examined the bracelet that brought tender familiarity to Lexi’s heart, she asked, “Is it empty? Or did you pick out and weave threads?”

Goddess. “There are threads.”

“Witnesses?” asked Celaeno.

“Yes.”

“And you picked these out together?”

“Yes.” Initially, the options at the store had felt neutral at best. Lexi had been on the verge of suggesting they keep the temporaries since the bonding was allegedly a ruse. But she’d hesitated each time she’d gone to suggest it. Then Safira’s help had allowed the store to find the bracelets that Thaia and Lexi now wore. When Lexi had seen them, she couldn’t fathom not getting them. Not when they were exactly what she didn’t know she’d been searching for.

“This is really fine work,” Celaeno said when she examined it. Then she let go of Lexi’s wrist and grinned at her. “What meanings do your threads have?”

They would overanalyze and Lexi knew it, yet there was no escaping it. “I chose mischievousness for her, she chose kindness for me, and together we chose balance.”

“She picked kind,” said Soraya. “She sees that in you after two years together and you have exes who never saw it, or if they did, they didn’t believe in it enough to not let your love of your work overshadow what you felt for them.” She leaned closer and made direct eye contact with Lexi. “I don’t think this is anywhere near fake. Not when it’s obvious how both of you feel.”

“Obvious?” asked Lexi. “What do you mean?” Nothing about this—whatever ‘this’ was—was obvious so much as it was confounding.

Soraya sighed. “If you don’t see how she’s ass over crest in love with you, then you might want to rethink your idea of picking up that clinical psych specialty you talked to me about.”

Nothing was obvious. The things Thaia did and said were simply the way she was. “Even _if_ what you say is true—”

“_If_, she says.” Celaeno smiled kindly. “As if over sixteen hundred years of combined experience could be wrong about something this basic.”

“There’s no if,” said Soraya. “She is. She’s probably right on the verge of figuring it out for herself. Same as you.”

Neither of them needed to figure anything out because it was what it was. “I—”

Celaeno cut her off. “It’s taken a while because she’s scared shitless. Don’t worry, it isn’t your fault. Commandos have a tendency to be emotionally stunted.”

Lexi caught herself going to stand but forced herself to sit rigidly on the sofa instead. How dare they imply Thaia not possess depth of emotion. “She is _not_ emotionally stunted. She’s open and friendly, though sometimes to a fault. Maybe some don’t see it, but she pays close attention to those whom she cares about. Then she takes what she’s learned and does small, yet significant things for those people. Things that can easily be overlooked. But I’ve noticed. It might have taken me a few times to pick up the pattern, but she brings home teas from wherever she’s traveled. And because she knows we don’t get to see each other enough and she has the more flexible schedule, she’ll even drop by my work whenever she has a layover long enough to get from the docks to the hospital and back. Just to say hi. Because she cares with the fullness of her being. Nothing about her is stunted.” 

The times Thaia unexpectedly dropped in always made those days brighter. Lexi hoped she was able to brighten Thaia’s days in return.

Soraya reached over and squeezed her hand. “You’re my daughter and I love you, but for someone usually insightful, you’re missing the obvious. I think some self-reflection is in order.” It was clear there was more, but her eyes flicked down to her omni. “Hold on, some commandos of mine brought back your things.” Then she went and answered the door.

A trio of commandos entered, one silently handing Soraya a datapad while the other two were directed by Celaeno to leave the packs in the room at the end of the hall. They left without saying anything at all, and Soraya rejoined Celaeno and Lexi on the sofas in short order.

She held up the datapad. “It’s about your shuttle. I’m assigning a detail to it until you’re on your way again. I’m not letting some low-skill-the-Blue-Suns-won’t-even-hire-them mercs ruin my baby’s honeymoon by stealing or breaking that shuttle.” Then she scanned the datapad and frowned. Still frowning, she let Celaeno read it, and only then did she show Lexi. “By any chance, does your new bondmate happen to be a thief?”

According to the findings on the datapad, the shuttle had been stolen from the Blood Pack.

Though proof of otherwise was right there in crisp lettering, Lexi _knew _Thaia. She knew her to a depth that could only have been deepened by a meld. Thaia wasn’t the type to steal. Perhaps if it were part of a mission with her squad and it was required, but not for something like this trip. “No,” she said, shaken.

“Yeah, I don’t think so either.” Soraya retrieved the datapad from Lexi. “Despite the shuttle’s logs pointing to yes, she doesn’t seem the type.” 

Relief eased the stiffness in Lexi’s posture. Soraya’s ability to accurately read people quickly and with ease was part of what had kept her alive and in her job for centuries. She was rarely, if ever, wrong.

Which put a whole new perspective on the conversation they’d just had.

This new complication, however, took precedence. “Are we going to tell her?” 

“Let’s see how this plays out first,” said Celaeno.

“Of course you’d say that.” Soraya began typing into the datapad. “Personally, I want do a little more investigation, such as finding out why the Blood Pack would care so much about something as trivial as a shuttle.”

“Easy,” said Celaeno. “Because they’re idiots.”

“Dear, a _vorcha_ would find this strange persistence of theirs short-sighted.”

“I suppose.” Celaeno looked over Lexi’s shoulder. “Oh, there she is.”

Lexi should not have turned around to look.

She should not have because something that had once not been a problem had become precisely that. A problem.

Exceptionally common and perfectly normal for asari, Thaia had wandered out to the living room wearing nothing aside from a bath towel slung low on her hips. Seeing Thaia like this was nothing new for Lexi. Though she’d always appreciated her best friend’s admittedly exquisite musculature, she’d never been this affected by it. But now Lexi struggled to locate her clinical detachment at a point when she desperately needed it for self-preservation. She needed it because she did not want to look away. She wanted to keep looking. No, she wanted to admire. Admire with her eyes the definition of Thaia’s abdominal muscles as they descended into a V that drew her gaze to the tantalizing edge of the towel. Admire with her fingers, tracing each and every groove between those finely sculpted muscles until she could dispose of that infernal towel and—

“Feeling better?” asked Celaeno.

Lexi nearly leapt out of her skin. What saved her was that she could justifiably, albeit briefly, turn her attention to Celaeno and stop thinking about all the ways she could show her admiration of Thaia’s—

Goddess, this wasn’t merely problematic. This was dangerous.

“Much better,” said Thaia. “Thanks for letting me use your shower.”

Celaeno shrugged. “It was half for you and half for the safety of our furniture, but you’re welcome.”

“Out of curiosity,” Soraya said, “do you have the ability to steal a ship?”

Thaia supplied an answer without pause and likely without forethought. “Technically, since I trained for it with the rest of my unit. If I’m by myself I could probably boost a smaller ship if I needed to. But if you’re talking a cruiser or frigate, that’d take my whole squad. And if we wanted to be absolutely sure, we’d bring a second squad. Why do you ask?”

She sounded so innocent that Lexi _had_ to look at her again. And focus on her face. Her eyes the same color as the depths of Thessian oceans and those high cheekbones and… no, nothing else. Except perhaps her shoulders, which led to her arms, triceps beautifully flexing when Thaia scratched her shoulder blade as she waited for Soraya’s reply.

Soraya had already gone back to her datapad. “Nevermind for now. Go get dressed or you’ll catch a chill. Your pack is in Lexi’s room. End of the hall.”

After a puzzled look and a shrug, Thaia disappeared down the hallway.

Lexi watched her go.

She should not have. It only brought more danger upon them both, yet she was left with one burning question: how in the goddess’s name had she not noticed Thaia’s back before? The musculature there was equally as—

“Well, she’s certainly fit,” said Celaeno. Rather pointedly, in Lexi’s opinion.

Soraya hummed and nodded. “My baby has a type. It’s hardly surprising that she bonded with someone who has a body essentially at the apex of said type.”

“I’m sitting right here,” said Lexi, grateful that she’d kept the majority of her composure. She’d spoken normally and there wasn’t a blush on her cheeks that she could feel.

“We’re being complimentary,” said Celaeno.

Goddess forbid if Thaia knew she was being complimented and the probable consequences of that happening allowed Lexi speak firmly. “Be that as it may, you need to stop before she hears you. Otherwise, her ego will be fed and she will be unbearable for hours. Quite possibly days.”

Celaeno elbowed Soraya. “Sounds like every other commando I know.”

“Shut up,” Soraya said through a chuckle.

Every time Lexi heard her mother laugh like that, a smile sneaking out where so often she hid them due to her work, Lexi was grateful for Celaeno’s presence in Soraya’s life. Now, it also served as a reminder for what Lexi had sought within her own relationships, something she’d eventually come to believe was impossible for her. So impossible that she’d taken a break from relationships for decades.

But the day’s events had invoked a breathlessness in her she’d never experienced before to this degree. Laughter where it shouldn’t have been, yet felt right in the moment. Agreements that, on the surface, she never should have made, yet felt so natural that she couldn’t imagine not making them. Each of those had been due to one person.

Perhaps it might not be so impossible for her after all.

* * *

The back-scratch flex had fucking _worked_ and if Thaia hadn’t been so irritated with Meir right then she would’ve messaged her with a thank you for teaching it to her. Lexi had looked. And then looked some more, which she’d done before but not for that long. Or so obviously. Or with what Thaia was pretty sure had been a blush, which was interesting new information she’d have to analyze later, namely when they were no longer on Omega. Or fake bonded because if Lexi _had_ blushed while doing some looking, it wasn’t the usual anatomist kind of looking, it was a whole other kind of looking that brought new elements to their non-relationship-relationship that was, legally, a marriage and therefore most definitely a relationship that she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with. Or that Lexi was.

Or the exceptionally significant thing Thaia had maybe-if-she-let-herself-think-about-it for-more-than-a-nanosecond realized back on the Citadel, which was that she in lo—

Fuck.

Two nanoseconds. Too much.

She jumped to the other thing that she shouldn’t think about because her brain liked to work against her better judgment sometimes.

A lot of the time.

_Most_ of the time.

It left Thaia also still doing her fucking best to forget about how the alcove flimsy-as-fuck-yet-pleasant excuse for a cover had gotten away from them in shockingly fast fashion. In the best ways. But Lexi had challenged her to make it convincing and she had. Just a little too well because up until Lexi’s stepdad had startled them out of it, they’d convinced themselves it was real, too.

Which had troubling implications for other things in their lives that were supposed to be fake.

No time to think about it. They were on Omega right now.

And Lexi had been speaking with her rarely-heard accent almost the whole time and fifty percent of the time Thaia heard it she didn’t know what to do with herself because she loved how it sounded in multiple ways and what it did to so many places in—

_Goddess_. 

Not the fucking time. They’d been shot at multiple times earlier that day and still needed to fix the broken shuttle. They were circumstances troubling enough that Thaia acted responsibly by sending Sula a message letting her know where they were before she’d gotten in the shower, establishing her slow return to the status of a good child. Responsible remained out of reach, as it had for her entire life thus far. An impromptu bonding hadn’t helped in that regard.

In sock feet, Thaia followed the low voices of Lexi, Soraya, and Celaeno, finding them gathered in the kitchen. Celaeno was seated at the table reading over a datapad, Lexi in the chair next to her. Soraya leaned a hip against the counter, focused on her omni with an intense look that reminded Thaia of the same one Lexi got when presented with a problem she didn’t particularly care for. 

Soraya, because she’d been a commando longer than Thaia had been alive, looked up the moment Thaia crossed the living area. Her movement drew the attention of the other two, but Soraya was still the first to speak. “Is boosting shuttles a hobby of yours?”

What the fuck she’d just come out here. “What?”

“You’ve been stealing shuttles?” asked Lexi, who then made another one of those confusing hand gestures Thaia had seen her, along with Celaeno and Soraya and a bunch of other Omega people, make. Unaware of Thaia’s confusion, Lexi continued. “You’ve been stealing shuttles from mercenary company leaders?” There was something a little too sharp about the question that Thaia really hoped was related to them having had a long day.

A very long day.

Wait, now the strange question Soraya had asked about stealing ships suddenly made, well, _some_ sense. “No?”

Soraya handed her a datapad.

Thaia read over the first paragraph three times before she said, “It’s a _stolen_ shuttle?”

She shouldn’t have been surprised. She’d bought it from Nef, after all. While Nef seemed to constantly come into really cool stuff—such as VIP tickets to an Armali skyball game or that limited edition Destiny Ascension model two months before its official release—there was always a strange happenstance afterward. With the skyball tickets, the actual VIPs in the box had given Thaia and Lexi odd looks throughout the entire game. Then the model kit had been missing the smart paints usually included with models of the Ascension’s size. When Thaia had picked up the paints separately at the hobby shop, the employee had also given her several odd looks. Odd enough that she’d mentioned them to Lexi after she’d gotten home.

But Thaia kept assuming that, this time, nothing weird would happen. And yet, every time, there Thaia stood, surprised.

As she stood now, in her new in-laws’ apartment and making a resounding first impression, surprised.

“Gets better,” said Celaeno, amused.

It did not get better.

The shuttle had once been property of one Ganar Yulaz. Fucking _fuck_. “Stolen from the Blood Pack’s fucking leader?!” This was approximately a million times worse than odd looks from VIPs and shop owners and Thaia couldn’t decide if it was anger or fear or both running up her spine and pulling taut every muscle along the way. Probably both. _Fuck_. There had to be some fucking way to prove to the Blood Pack that she wasn’t the thief they were looking to kill. She didn’t want to die. Especially not after she’d just gotten bonded.

She looked at the date.

There! There it was. Safe. “Okay, okay, I was on a field training exercise on Lusia when it was stolen. Which means the friend I bought it from stole it.”

“Are you sure this person is your friend?” asked Soraya, who sounded amused like Celaeno, and thankfully not pissed off.

Frankly, the idea of Lexi’s mother pissed off was fucking terrifying. Commandos who lived to late matronhood and beyond could probably kill someone in less than five seconds using a vorcha tooth.

And there were a lot of vorcha on Omega.

Thaia scowled but it didn’t feel scowly enough for what Nef deserved. “Not anymore I’m not.”

“Is it the same friend from whom you bought those nearly impossible to obtain skyball tickets?” asked Lexi, the sharpness from before replaced with pointed curiosity. “The ones for the championship game between Armali and Serrice?”

“Come on. Improbable isn’t impossible because the probability is a non-zero number. And the game was awesome. Armali stopped Serrice from getting their fucking three-peat.” Lexi had been right there next to her, cheering Armali on, cheeks stained indigo from the evening chill of late autumn in Armali. Thaia couldn’t help smiling at the memory. “And what made it better than awesome was that you were there to see it with me.” It was the truth. She couldn’t think of anyone better to have shared it with than the person she was in—

Her best friend. Sharing it with her best friend.

And bondmate. But she hadn’t been back then and wasn’t now. No, wait, she technically _was_ since it was legal.

This was so fucking confusing.

Also she might’ve heard quiet laughs from both Soraya’s direction and Celaeno’s, but when she looked up, neither were laughing, though they did give Lexi brief, fond smiles. And if Thaia wasn’t mistaken, there was a light blush on Lexi’s cheeks that echoed the blush from during the game. 

Oh, if _Lexi_ was cold, then Thaia wasn’t overreacting to think it was too cold here. Earlier, if she hadn’t been trying to put on a show to see how Lexi would react to her finely and conveniently flexed muscles, Thaia would’ve run her ass to the back bedroom and wrapped herself up in blankets. Fortunately, her clothes were there and Soraya had sent her to get dressed.

“What’s the statistical probability of your friend winning four VIP tickets like she claimed?” Lexi asked after a moment.

Thaia thought Lexi sounded off balance, but it’d been a long day. She was just tired. And she’d asked a math question and Thaia would never not answer those. But then she wished she hadn’t because the probability was astoundingly low. “The statistical probability is that she must’ve used up an entire life’s worth of luck in that ticket lottery.”

Soraya and Celaeno exchanged _another_ amused look and a flurry of hand gestures with it. Lexi glared at both of them before injecting some of her own. Then both the older asari grinned at Lexi and then Thaia.

Lexi sighed and rubbed at her temples before she asked, “And the limited edition Destiny Ascension model? Was that her luck, as well?”

“Same friend. And… wow, she’s got an exceptional amount of luck.” Thaia was admittedly jealous. Nef got so much cool shit with all her luck.

“Oh, that was a nice kit,” said Celaeno. “Only five hundred manufactured. The black markets here couldn’t even get one and I searched.”

“I’ve got it on display on the bookshelves at the apartment,” said Thaia. “I had to modify the shelves though since it takes up the vertical and horizontal area of four. Eventually I just installed more bookshelves to make up for the loss of shelf space. Looks good, though.” She accessed her omni to show Celaeno some holos because she’d backlit the case to complement the Ascension’s lines and even Lexi had liked it. Liked it enough where she didn’t object to it being in their living room, so long as Thaia had put in additional shelving for the books that’d been temporarily removed.

Lexi looked between both Celaeno and Thaia. “Both of you, focus on the shuttle. You can talk about models later.” Then she placed her focus on Thaia alone but not in the way Thaia wanted her to, those dextrous fingers—

Telling her brain to fuck off did nothing. Telling her brain to think about how Nef had likely fucked her over and almost gotten her and Lexi killed worked better.

“What does this friend of yours do for work?” Lexi asked. “You’ve never said.”

“Honestly?” Thaia shrugged. “I’m not sure and at this point I’m afraid to ask. My guess is something shady.”

“Obviously,” said Lexi, dry as fuck and Thaia would always love how she could talk like that.

Thaia smiled, which probably wouldn’t improve Lexi’s mood but it made Thaia less rage-anger and more determined-anger with regards to Nef and the shuttle. “Look up droll in the dictionary and the example audio file is going to be you, babe.”

“She’s got you there,” Soraya said to Lexi as she fetched the datapad back from Thaia.

Lexi rolled her eyes.

“I’m assuming you can prove you bought the shuttle from your so-called friend?” asked Celaeno.

Thaia switched to her banking app. “Yeah, let me bring up the transaction record for—what the fuck?”

It wasn’t there. Sure, the fucking credits were still gone from her account, but the record of where they’d gone didn’t exist. Had never existed. Even though they had at one point in time.

“The record’s not there.”

Soraya laughed. “Of course it isn’t.”

An incoming message notification flashed in the corner of the display. Maybe it was Nef. She could yell at Nef. Maybe in all caps.

It was Sula.

_Fuck_.

Sula only knew up to the part where Thaia and Lexi had stopped off on Omega to get a replacement part for what they’d believed at the time was _not_, in fact, a stolen shuttle. If Sula knew more, Sula would insist on a vid call right then and there.

> _Where’d you get that shuttle? We need to take a look at the contract when you get back_.

Thaia decided it was best she keep it short. She didn’t want a family conference call that consisted of yelling at her to play out again, only this time with her new in-laws there to witness it and participate as the two sides of the family began to get along delightfully.

> I bought it from Nef.

> _You mean that sketchy former commando Meir sometimes hooks up with?_

Thaia’s stomach dropped.

> ...what?

> _Do you know another Nef?_

> I wish I did.

> _There isn’t a contract for the shuttle, is there?_

> No.

Thaia could _hear_ the sigh from Sula in her next reply.

> _Okay, let me know when you’ve left Omega so I can worry about your dumb ass a fraction less_.

Not so bad. Compared to the Citadel, pretty damn good.

Then came Sula’s parting shot:

> _I still can’t believe you didn’t know Meir was FWB with Nef_.

Thaia closed the app before Sula could do more damage, but it was too late. She’d read too much and now knew too much.

Lexi asked, “Are you all right? You look a little pale.”

“No.” Thaia cleared her throat so she’d stop sounding as pained as she fucking felt. “That was my dad. Who just informed me that one of my sisters is friends with benefits with Nef and I didn’t need to know that.”

“Which sister?”

Thaia grimaced. “Meir.”

Lexi did not hide her laugh because of course she’d find it funny. “And Nef is?”

“The so-called friend from whom I bought the fucking shuttle.” Rarely did Thaia pay attention to being that grammatically correct, but there were times when outrage called for it. The words punched better.

She wanted to punch with more than words. Oh, maybe she could. Maybe she could get the target of her ire to get her ass to Omega so they could have a real chat. Or Nef could talk to the Blood Pack about this entire misunderstanding.

Sure, Thaia might’ve been a little too optimistic on that front, but she sent Nef a message anyway.

> Nef, what the fuck?

The answer came suspiciously fast. Then again, anything and everything Nef did or said deserved heavy suspicion.

> _You’re going to have to be more specific._

> Nef, what the _actual_ fuck?

> _Not the specificity I was looking for_.

> You stole the fucking shuttle that you sold me? Wait, I didn’t convey my feelings properly. You stole the motherfucking shuttle of the fucking Blood Pack’s LEADER? Look, you’ve got to come to Omega and clear this shit up.

> _I’m hurt. Why would you think I’d steal a shuttle? Here._

An attachment from Nef appeared in Thaia’s inbox. When Thaia opened it, several transaction receipts popped up.

> _See? I bought it from someone on Omega. So they ripped me off and the Blood Pack’s calling me a thief because of it. I can’t come back right now, though. Why don’t you show them the receipts I sent you?_

It sounded reasonable. Thaia examined the transactions again, which all bore marks of legitimacy. Except if Thaia waved receipts at the Blood Pack currently after her, she’d get her ass shot. It wasn’t like she could use words as effectively as Nef could.

> Maybe I’m not communicating how fucked up the current situation is, so let me try again. Because the Blood Pack seems to believe I’m _you_, they’re trying to fucking kill me. Not just me, either. Lexi’s been a target, too. 

> _We_ are _about the same size and build_.

> Except you’re so far down the scale of purple that you’re practically _pink_ and my skin’s blue. 

> _It isn’t my fault that some people see boobs and crests and that’s all the info they need. Lexi’s with you then? So did you really get fake actual bonded to her to get onto the Citadel?_

Thaia was long past wondering how Nef found out about things. She was just one of those people who _always_ seemed to know shit.

> Yes, but don’t change the subject.

> _Too bad. I could’ve faked your marriage credentials in five minutes if you’d mentioned it earlier. For a small fee, of course._

> With how things have turned out so far, anything you faked would’ve ended up more real and binding than the actual real and binding one.

> _If you want, I can undo it for you. For a large fee. Legitimate bonding records are heavily encrypted, after all_.

> NO. You’ve done enough.

> _All right, well, I offered. Maybe I can be Meir’s plus one at the renewal_.

> You’ve got some real tits on you to assume we’d invite Meir or you to the renewal.

> _So you_ are _planning on a renewal?_

Thaia disconnected the comm.

“Well?” asked Soraya.

“Maybe she didn’t steal it? She told me she bought it from someone here. Look, she forwarded me the transaction receipts.” Thaia flipped her omni display so the others could see the receipts for themselves.

While Lexi and Soraya did examine them, Celaeno didn’t even bother. She crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. “No seasoned trader on Omega would leave a single trace of their transactions.”

Thaia frowned. Everything had looked normal. “Nef’s pretty good with tech. Maybe she saved a copy?”

“No,” said Soraya, returning to her lean against the counter. “She stole it. I haven’t a doubt in my mind.”

She’d fucking gotten her again. Thaia jabbed at her omni and shut the fucking thing off. “You know what? I’m giving it back to her after this trip is over.”

“Really?” asked Lexi. “That seems rather restrained, given what’s happened.”

“I mean I’ll give it back by shoving it up Nef’s—”

“You’d have to find her first,” said Soraya. “This Nef strikes me as someone who can be difficult to find when she doesn’t want to be. I suspect now is one of those times.” She fetched a bottle of water from the fridge and handed it to Thaia. “Have a drink and a seat. We’re ordering in because we’ve got a lot to figure out, but you both need a good meal.”

Thaia accepted the water. But then she stood there and tried to reconcile being mothered by one of Aria’s most trusted lieutenants. It was difficult, to say the least.

Lexi made one of those hand gestures at her and then watched her expectantly.

Hopefully she was expecting Thaia’s cluelessness because that’s all Thaia had for her. She shrugged a shoulder for added effect.

Lexi gestured again.

“What?” Thaia finally asked. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Neither does she,” said Celaeno.

“She does but neither of them want to admit it,” Soraya said and then looked up from her typing. “I’m open to suggestions for dinner. Also, Lexi, no matter how exasperated you get, Thaia isn’t going to know any of the Omegan hand gestures. Thaia, she was asking you to sit down.”

“Is _that_ what those are about?” The Omegan dialect was far more complicated than Thaia had assumed if hand gestures were an integral part of it. She seated herself in the empty chair across from Lexi and thoughts about what Soraya really meant along with wondering if Lexi would like it if she learned the Omegan dialect vanished when her stomach growled. Except her brain couldn’t be entirely derailed and picked the dinner option closest connected to its current annoyingly persistent preoccupation. “What about that kebab place in the market we ran through? The one all those elcor were lined up for.”

“Good pick. I’ll order some of their most popular dishes. You’re bound to like something.” Before Soraya went back to her omni, she asked Thaia, “Do you have a way to find out where your friend is? Other than hoping she’ll just tell you? Because she won’t.”

Thaia drew her finger through the condensation on her water bottle as she mulled it over. There had to be a way to find Nef. Unless she was even shadier than Thaia had originally thought, which wasn’t entirely out of the question. But Thaia wasn’t the only person who stayed in contact with her. Not that she wanted to think about it in detail. Or at all. “Meir might know how to find her since they have that whole ‘friends with benefits’ thing going on. I wonder when they last talked? Oh, maybe they crossed paths on the Citadel the other day.”

“Babe,” Lexi said the moment Thaia made eye contact.

Then it hit her. Hit her like a kick to the fucking quad. “Oh, fuck me, _Meir _was her date last night.” Goddess, that explained so fucking much, like how Nef knew about their fake-but-real bonding, like the details Meir—no. No she wouldn’t allow herself to go there.

Her imagination took mercy on her and cooperated. Sort of. It cooperated by obliterating any and all images of Meir and Nef and replacing them with images of herself and Lexi.

_Fuck_.

Thaia broke eye contact with Lexi and concentrated on her suddenly fascinating water. 

“What do you want to do about the shuttle?” asked Celaeno. “I’m guessing you need it for transport and it’s your only one given the lengths you went to get it in the first place.”

Problem solving! Problem solving that had nothing to do with her imagination sprinting the fuck away from her. “We could scrub it. Refit any trackable components, but I’d have to find replacements for them, too, and not just the engine part.”

Soraya waved her off. “I have people for that.”

“Lexi,” Thaia said, leaning forward on her elbows, “your mother has ‘people.’ That’s intimidating as fuck.”

Lexi only smiled at her, but seeing the smile reflect in her eyes released some of the tension in Thaia’s limbs. With everything that’d gone wrong, Lexi wasn’t _too_ upset. Their trip could be salvaged.

“If you want to see intimidating, you should meet Aria,” said Soraya.

Goddess, Soraya’s dry remarks were as fucking deadly as Lexi’s, only with an extra layer of deadly that destroyed any amount of the ‘hot’ that Thaia associated with Lexi.

“No one’s planning that, I hope,” said Thaia.

“It isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Your work on those mercs in the factory was thorough and had enough violence of action that my people have heard rumors that the Blood Pack is backing off for the time being. You intimidated them that much in one fight, which is impressive. Aria appreciates abilities like that in her commandos.”

The prickling heat of nausea crept through her when she remembered how those people had been reduced to _scraps_ in the biotic explosion and she’d been the one to detonate it. “I wasn’t trying to—I did what I had to. And I hadn’t taken into account how the higher concentration of atmospherically available eezo would strengthen my biotics.” She swallowed, hard, and couldn’t add more. 

Lexi reached across the table and briefly squeezed Thaia’s hand.

Soraya hadn’t looked up. “Efficient, as well? Another ability Aria looks for.”

“Mum, no,” Lexi said, glancing over her shoulder at Soraya. Then she made another of those hand gestures.

After studying her daughter for a moment, Soraya nodded and turned to Thaia. “Well, you ever decide you want a new boss, give me a call and I’ll get you a meeting with Aria.” Her attention went back to her omni and she smiled. “Dinner’s here.”

They were digging into some of the best kebabs Thaia had ever had in her entire _life_ before she finally had to ask. “Out of curiosity I probably shouldn’t have if I knew what was good for me,” Thaia said to Celaeno, “do you work for Aria, too?”

“Nah.” Celaeno pointed down. “Eezo miner.”

Lexi sighed. “She runs the daily operations of the entire mine. And is fond of understatement.”

“Seriously?” In between bites of the heavily spiced meat, Thaia asked Celaeno the questions she’d been wondering about with Omega for ages. Questions such as how they kept the station stable when the rock they minded the foundation for everything else? Luckily for her, Celaeno appeared to be happy entertaining her questions, explaining in detail how they maintained the structural integrity of Omega while actively mining it. The answers held fast to Thaia’s attention and she forgot about everything else as the numbers coalesced into substance. This shit was way better than establishing fields of fire for ambushes.

“As illuminating as this conversation is, we do need to decide on the shuttle,” Soraya said when Celaeno paused, ostensibly to come up with answer to yet another question, but instead gave someone the opportunity to break in. 

“For safety’s sake, I think we should switch to a different one,” said Lexi.

“That would take too long,” said Thaia. “We’ve got Aite and the literary conference.”

Soraya nodded. “A refit will be safe enough. If the Blood Pack get their teeth back and decide to be stupid and chase you again, they won’t be able to track you once you’re off station. But you should unload that thing after Aite.”

The suggestion rolled out as easily as Thaia’s squadmates did when coming up with bars to hit. But the bar fights had led to a trail of misdemeanors easily cleared from her record with a little community service or paying restitution. So her record was far cleaner than anyone would expect—outside a single incident. However, merely buying the shuttle from Nef was already technically a criminal act of a level she never wanted to reach. And this idea could make it worse. “But selling stolen property is a felony.”

All three of them stared at her like she’d just said the stupidest thing imaginable.

“What?” She raised her hands in self-defense, leaving the last of her food in the takeout container. Sure, the settling food was allowing her exhaustion to catch up to her fast, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t so far gone that she’d spoken nonsense. “It is! The only major thing on my record is the Relay Monument incident that, again, happened because of a potent mix of medication still in my bloodstream after getting my dislocated shoulder fixed, drinking, and enabling squadmates. Even _Lexi’s _susceptible to the enabling of my squadmates, which should tell you a lot about the persuasive abilities of my squad.”

Celaeno laughed quietly. “Commandos can be persuasive.”

Thaia didn’t miss the mostly playful frown Soraya sent her bondmate’s way. And that Celaeno’s only reaction was a smirk. Thaia liked seeing it, though. Reminded her of her own parents.

It was Lexi who took pity on her. “You’re talking about felonies while sitting in an apartment on Omega. Felonies don’t exist here or throughout the entirety of Terminus Systems space. Selling the shuttle might be the best course of action.”

“I’ll think about it,” said Thaia.

Lexi’s brow furrowed. “What else are you going to do with it?”

“Shove it up Nef’s—”

“As personally satisfying as that might be, you won’t recover any of your investment that way,” said Celaeno.

“The investment I made wasn’t monetary.” It’d been about Lexi’s happiness because she deserved to enjoy her time off, whether it be going on an awesome adventure that got her to smile in the way that lit up her whole face or going to a krogan literary conference and watching someone eventually try to debate a thresher maw. Before Thaia could stop herself, she looked in Lexi’s direction.

Soraya laughed, making no effort to hide it. “Well, let’s do what we can to be sure your true investment is realized. Refitting the shuttle it is and then you can decide where to go from there. My people can get that done while you both sleep.”

Lexi stood and pushed her chair back under the table. “I’m showering first, lest I contaminate any bed linens.” Then she headed down the hallway.

Sleep summoned Thaia insistently when she got to her feet, but Lexi’s absence meant Thaia could duck back out to the market and to that bookstore they’d passed earlier. Lexi had been so interested in that ARC that Thaia couldn’t not try to get it before they left. 

She turned to Soraya and Celaeno. “So there’s this elcor who runs a bookshop and he told Lexi about an ARC he got from her favorite series. Since we were running from those mercs, she didn’t have time to look at it, much less buy it. But I can’t just let that kind of thing get away from her because Nef fucked me over. When does that place close? I need to get down there in time to get it. Also, I’ll need directions because we didn’t exactly take a direct route from there to here.”

“You’re all right,” said Celaeno, getting up from her chair and clearing the table. “The owner’s name is Iwal, by the way.”

That had to be good news. Thaia almost full-on grinned again. “So I’m okay to go? I’ll still need directions.”

“Oh, no,” said Soraya. “Omega would eat you alive. You’d end up dead and my baby would be devastated and we can’t have that. Your heart’s in the right place, though. Tell you what, I’ll message Iwal and send someone down to pick it up for you. In the meantime, you need to rest.”

Celaeno made a show of evaluating her again. “Yeah, you look exhausted. When’s the last time you slept?”

“I think it was…” Shit, she couldn’t get any of the times from all the places she’d been to match up, especially when her concept of average length of days and nights had been fucked up by Lusia. “Maybe it was this morning? If it was morning. It was morning somewhere.”

Soraya got her by the shoulders and turned her around. “If you can’t remember, that means it’s bedtime.”

“You’re sending me to bed?” Thaia asked over her shoulder. 

“I am.” Soraya gave her a little push. “Good night, Waterbug.”

Message received—along with a preview of how fucking strong Lexi’s mother must be because her grip had been tight—Thaia hustled down the hallway. Lexi was still showering, so it was an empty bedroom greeting Thaia when she opened the door. 

However, the bed taunted her after she closed the door behind her.

It shouldn’t have. This wouldn’t be the first time they’d shared a bed. They’d shared a bed plenty of times, almost always at the apartment, but other places, too. This shouldn’t be a big deal. Not as big of a deal as the heart hammering away in her chest seemed to think.

Then again, it was the first time Thaia would share a bed with someone she was in—

Goddess, _no_.

She weighed the pros and cons of sleeping on one of the couches. 

It’d be kind of cold.

Also she had a feeling Soraya and Celaeno would make fun of her.

They _would_ make fun of her.

In their position, _Thaia_ would’ve made fun of her.

Okay, she could do this. She could do this and not think about how her fucking heart probably felt or how Lexi’s body would feel against her—

In all honesty, she might die.

But she’d be with Lexi. Maybe even in her arms. Wait, no. When it was cold it was warmer for her if she was the big spoon. It was like cuddling with a heat pack that happened to possess some glorious, goddess-given curves.

She could do this.

She readied to strip before she realized she could _not_ do this bare-ass naked. There had been a time when she hadn’t appreciated how other species weren’t big on sharing a bed—to sleep—with friends, while still not wearing much, if any, clothing. No big deal for asari. She and Lexi had slept in the same bed without wearing a fucking thing on several occasions. Perfectly normal.

Until it wasn’t.

Like right now.

Shirt and underwear and excuses of ‘it’s cold’ it was.

By the time Lexi joined her, Thaia was almost fully asleep, drowsily draping an arm around Lexi before Lexi had finished getting under the covers. 

Though Lexi did wait to comment until the covers had been drawn up. “Are you dressed?” she asked quietly, but there was no mistaking the incredulousness with it.

“Cold,” Thaia mumbled into the pillow. If she could finish falling asleep it meant she could sleep in the same bed with Lexi after having realized that she might be in—no, no, needed to sleep.

“You’ve had survival training.” Lexi hadn’t lost her incredulousness, even as she scooted closer and finishing bringing Thaia’s arm around her torso. It was exceptionally hot because it was bare. Like most of Lexi’s body. Because Lexi had braved the cold in all ways except to leave her underwear on and…

That. Was. It.

_Fuck_.

Lexi didn’t let up. “You know as well as I do that clothing hampers the warming process when beneath covers or in a sleeping bag.” Her fingers brushed over the bonding bracelets on their wrists and Thaia wondered if Lexi was actively trying to kill her.

“Didn’t want to be naked while exposed to the cold as fuck air.” Which was mostly true.

_Please finish falling asleep right the fuck now_, Thaia pleaded with herself when she started nodding off. It meant she was also in the ‘can’t lie to save her life even less than usual, might as well have taken truth serum’ sleepy stage, but there was risk and there was _risk_.

“I didn’t understand half of what you said.” Lexi threaded her fingers with Thaia’s and then nestled both their forearms in the fantastically warm valley between her tits.

Thaia’s heart stopped. “Shit excuse. Avoiding naked. You and me. Together.” Fuck. _Fuck_. She’d said too much and she took the only recourse left to her—pretending to fall asleep. And she did, without shame, ignoring Lexi’s quiet laugh.

Eventually, basking in the heat from Lexi and in the familiar comfort of sleeping next to her that she hadn’t had in months, Thaia fell asleep for real.

* * *

In the morning, it wasn’t the first time Thaia had woken up to her arms wrapped securely around Lexi and a leg thrown over hers for good measure. It also wasn’t Thaia’s fault that they kept sleeping in places with temperatures comparable to Thessia’s polar regions. And it was triple not her fault that Lexi could’ve doubled as a warming blanket.

Eyes still closed, Thaia hummed contentedly. “You keep me warm.”

“You’re using me for my body heat,” Lexi said sleepily yet somehow managing to communicate serious skepticism about the cold.

Well, Thaia had attempted to express her appreciation thoughtfully, but if Lexi was going to be skeptical, Thaia would fucking prove her wrong. “You don’t think it is? I can help.”

“You don’t need—”

Thaia touched her cold nose to Lexi’s neck.

Goddess, Lexi _yelped_ and went on about how it was the coldest nose she’d ever felt in her life and she’d had to work with _cadavers_ in medical school. She was so outraged that it was the second funniest fucking thing Thaia had witnessed in days and how could she _not_ be expected to laugh so hard she couldn’t breathe?

Lexi shoved her out of bed.

Not until Lexi rose from the bed and walked over to her dresser did Thaia stop laughing because it was hard to laugh when her throat went dry. Then, on her way out the door, Lexi shot her a look that Thaia wasn’t sure about because it maybe meant things she’d imagined or maybe they weren’t imagined and sleep hadn’t done a fucking thing to clear up the confusion.

When they entered the kitchen, Soraya told them Celaeno was already down in the docking bay. On her part, Soraya had an actual breakfast ready, herding them into chairs and placing full plates in front of them before anyone could manage a good morning.

Thaia wasn’t sure she’d ever get over being mothered by one of Aria’s lieutenants.

“What was that thump I heard from your room?” Soraya asked. “I wouldn’t normally ask, but that didn’t sound like the good kind.”

“Lexi threw me out of bed,” Thaia got in before Lexi could, and then resumed eating a breakfast that wouldn’t have been out of place on Thessia. In fact, Thaia was pretty sure Sula had cooked something like this on multiple occasions.

Soraya folded her arms across her chest and regarded Lexi with a playfully critical eye. “My baby should know that isn’t conducive to a proper honeymoon.”

“She _deserved_ it,” said Lexi.

“I did,” Thaia said when she saw Soraya raise an eyebrow at her. “Anyway, thanks for breakfast.”

“I have to make sure you’re both properly fed because goddess knows when you’ll get a proper meal while you’re out exploring derelict ships.”

“Only one derelict ship. We aren’t even spending the night there.” She was pretty sure that, barring any other detours, they could get back to the Citadel for the night after most of a day exploring the site.

“Well,” said Soraya, “once you’ve finished, get your things together and we’ll go down to the docking ring. The shuttle’s nearly ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to [skyllianhamster](https://skyllianhamster.tumblr.com) for help with Nef's dialogue 💙


	6. Backroad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
3\. “Now? Now you listen to me?”  
11\. “It’s not always like this.”  
13\. “I never knew it could be this way.”  
15\. “That’s what I’m talking about!”  
19\. “Yes, I admit it, you were right.”  
20\. “You could talk about it, you know?”  
21\. “Change is annoyingly difficult.”  
23\. “You can’t give more than yourself.”  
27\. “Can you wait for me?”

**Omega, 2210.**

Pack resting comfortably on her back, Thaia took note of the visible guards Soraya had deployed in the docking bay. There were two near the large set of doors that marked where the docking ring connected to the main street of the Gozu District. Two more stood at the edge of the shuttle’s assigned slip. If Thaia could see only four guards, it meant there were at least equally as many out of sight. There might even be more visible guards at the other end of the bay. Considering that the bay was basically empty compared to the day before, it was entirely possible that the simple presence of guards employed by Aria scared everyone off.

It also meant that this area of the docking bay was as safe as Omega could be and tension Thaia didn’t even realize was between her shoulders eased.

It came back the instant she realized that Aria could be around since the place was essentially deserted.

_Fuck_.

But it fled again when Thaia noticed that repairs weren’t completely done on the shuttle. _A chance to fix shit!_ She sprinted the rest of the way there, literally threw her pack into the shuttle, and then threw herself under the shuttle. Celaeno was there, putting the finishing touches on some wiring, with another open panel awaiting completion nearby.

Thaia grabbed what she needed from the open toolbox and happily went to work. Maybe she was weird but the combination of drive eezo contaminated by synthetic engine lubricant was strangely relaxing.

A minute or so passed before Celaeno said, “Didn’t you say stealing shuttles wasn’t a hobby of yours? I seem to recall that. I’m not that old that I’m forgetting shit.”

“Learning how things that go in space work is a hobby of mine,” said Thaia. “That’s why I asked about how the mining affects the station.” She paused as she connected the last wire and fired up the wiring check function on her omni. “And now I’m wondering how the reduction in mass as more eezo is mined out affects Omega’s orbit around Sahrabarik.”

Celaeno stared at her.

The wiring check reached seventy-five percent completion before Thaia had to admit that Celaeno wasn’t going to relent until acknowledged. “What?”

“You ever thought about a career change? Because getting you to talk about the fighting you did yesterday was like trying to yank a snapped drill bit from deep in the rock, but anytime this space shit comes up you talk like an uncapped well.”

She had, but it was complicated. She’d have to go back to school—which she actually would look forward to—but she’d be leaving her squad behind. “Change is annoyingly difficult.”

“_You_ are annoyingly difficult. If Lexi’s putting up with your oblivious ass, there’s no way it isn’t love.”

It was too early to deal with the ramifications of what Celaeno seemed determined to discuss and Thaia just could not. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like how you two should finish what you started in that alcove?”

Fucking relentless. “_No_.” The wiring check finished. Green all across. Thaia slapped the hull next to the panel. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

“Fucking _matrons_ who should be _fucking_ if they did what was best for them,” Celaeno said pitched just loud enough for Thaia to hear and Thaia knew she was meant to because Celaeno paired it with one of the most exasperated looks she’d ever been the recipient of.

And Thaia had been the recipient of a _lot_ of exasperated looks over the past three hundred and thirty years.

Then when time for farewells rolled around, Thaia got several sharply pointed looks from both Celaeno and Soraya before and after actual hugs were exchanged. For a split second when Soraya stopped to say something to her and kept her voice painfully quiet, terror stabbed through Thaia’s chest because it wasn’t unreasonable that Soraya could threaten her with what she would do if Thaia ever hurt her baby. But Thaia would never, not if she could do anything to help it.

It wasn’t that at all, though. “The ARC is in your pack.”

“Oh,” Thaia said, because she was so fucking relieved she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Soraya laughed, the notes in it sharing similarities with Lexi’s. “Did you think I was going to threaten you?”

“Not gonna lie, it crossed my mind.”

“My baby can take care of herself.” Soraya gave her shoulder a good squeeze and then let go. “Even if she couldn’t, that heart of yours is too big to ever do anything to intentionally cause her pain.”

“Mum, the bonding was a cover,” Lexi said from behind Thaia.

Goddess, but Soraya’s skepticism could scathe. “The sooner you both stop telling yourselves that, the better, because it doesn’t matter how much you say it, it isn’t going to make it true. Now.” She jumped down from the shuttle onto the dock. “Go finish your honeymoon. Send me a message when you’re back so I know you’re safe.”

Behind her, Celaeno waved, and then the shuttle’s door closed.

It took way less time to exit Omega’s flight control than it did the Citadel’s. Leaving the Citadel on a private vessel often took an hour or more and that didn’t include time spent in the holding pattern to use the relay. Here, they were out of Omega’s space and through the Omega-2 relay to the Tassrah System’s relay in the Phoenix Massing in less than half an hour. After their FTL course was set for the Typhon System, they had a couple hours to relax.

Thaia synced the nav panel to her omni-tool for any alerts, and then went aft to figure out where the fuck Lexi had gone.

She found her studying the bed in the cabin. Well, what passed for a bed because it was more a thin, firm rectangular pad on the floor because it was a krogan bed. Krogan, to Thaia’s never-ending amusement, slept in what resembled a lump. From afar, they looked like boulders. From close up, they still looked like boulders, if boulders snored.

It was a nice bed, though. For a krogan.

“This is a high quality dust bath,” Lexi said when she inspected the room off to the side.

Thaia poked her head in and whistled at the gleaming fixtures and piles of premium sand. “Nicer that Uncle Khel’s, even. A two-krogan luxury shuttle suited for a krogan CEO of a mercenary company. How the fuck did I not see this before?”

“You were preoccupied.” Lexi ran a hand down Thaia’s arm as she moved past. “It’s understandable.”

“So you’re not mad?” Thaia asked, turning her back to the dust bath and looking at Lexi, who’d stopped near the bed.

“Mad isn’t the word I’d use, no.”

“So what are you?”

Lexi tapped her chin. “When I think of the right descriptor, I’ll let you know.”

“Babe, that’s ominous as fuck.” Thaia surveyed the cabin again. Krogan-sized closet, krogan-sized chairs, krogan-sized _head_. So much for commandos being observant. “Maybe the whole ‘outfitted for krogan’ thing is why Nef sold it for cheap.”

“You mean aside from the fact that it was stolen?” Lexi sounded mostly amused. Hopefully.

Thaia leaned against the bulkhead next to the dust bath and crossed her arms. “How long are you going to be giving me shit about this?”

“Forever and always,” Lexi said over her shoulder as she strolled from the room.

Thaia had to stay behind long enough that she could stop smiling to herself. But she still felt all warm inside when she stepped out of the cabin to join Lexi in the little common area between the cabin and the bridge. There was a vid panel, a couch, and an armchair, all krogan-sized. Lexi had taken a seat on the couch, so Thaia sat on the couch, too, but on the opposite side. Not because she didn’t want to risk getting too close because then things would get awkward again, but totally because Lexi was glaring at her omni.

“What are you frowning at?” Thaia asked. “Please don’t tell me you came up with the right descriptor and it’s worse than I imagined.”

“Harry gossiped. I’m getting a slew of messages from my coworkers.”

“I like your coworkers. They’re way nicer than my coworkers, so what they’re saying can’t be that bad.”

Lexi sighed. “They like you, too.” She half-turned so her body was oriented toward Thaia’s and then flipped the omni’s display. “Have a look.”

Thaia did her best not to laugh. She really did.

> _Oh my god, you’re lawfully bonded!_

> _Your bondmate is so sweet. We’re so happy for you!_

> _If that’s what you were going to do while you had more than a couple days off, you should’ve asked sooner!_

“The last one is from my supervisor’s supervisor,” said Lexi.

Thaia lost the fight and fell into a full-on laughing fit.

“You’re as bad as they are,” said Lexi, grasping Thaia’s shoulders and pushing her back upright. “What about you? Have you gotten any messages from your squad?”

“Let me check.” And she had. Most of them were—goddess, Arun’s advice had only gotten worse. Ovadia was overly concerned about the now-healed minor wound on Thaia’s crest. Nawra and Kiana wanted to know how their honeymoon was going and if she’d used any of Arun’s advice. Shirin told her not to follow any of Arun’s advice and went on to list several explicit recommendations of her own.

Then Thaia reached Rosava’s message. It started out with a congratulations like most of the others, but then quickly moved onto an apology before delivering unwelcome news: they had their next assignment and the squad was being recalled early. In a week, they’d be shipping out on the Cybaen for an operation to draw out suspected pirates terrorizing the small joint asari-krogan farming colony on Chalkhos. The assignment was open-ended, meaning it could take months to complete and, to make it the absolute worst, radio silence would be mandated.

And here Thaia had been looking forward to a few weeks not thinking about anything commando-related. Her leave had already been marred by her oversized detonation in the factory that’d resulted in the kind of messes she didn’t want to see anymore, yet she more likely than not would see again within the next two weeks. Despite the smooth flight of the shuttle, her stomach roiled.

“You’re making that face again,” Lexi said gently.

“We’re being recalled early.” Thaia looked at her once she’d deactivated her omni. “Pirates on Chalkhos.”

“Do we need to turn around?”

Thaia straightened. “No! We’ve still got our week. Enough time for Aite and Tuchanka and maybe some chilling at home. I just thought—I was really looking forward to not having anymore life-or-death battles for a month. It was already too much having to fight those mercs on Omega hard enough that I killed them.” Thoroughly. Too thoroughly. She’d nearly thrown up after. On the mission before their training exercise, Thaia _had_ thrown up after an engagement. Luckily, the only person in her unit who’d witnessed it had been Rosava.

“Something about that fight is bothering you.” Lexi’s kindness further softened her voice, turning something that could have been a confrontation into a comfort. “I saw it on your face right after and I’m seeing the same on your face now.”

“It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary from the usual combat when I’m deployed with my unit. Explody.” She couldn’t stop the grimace. _People_ exploding again. It wasn’t like a bar fight, where willing participants got minor injuries at worst, where Thaia and her squadmates would use controlling biotics to stop a fight if it was turning the corner toward something where someone could get seriously hurt.

Then Lexi said, “You’re not talking about the cargo containers.”

“No.”

“You could talk about it, you know.” It was an offer from Lexi, not anything sarcastic, nothing to get a rise out of her. Just Lexi, in all her kindness, looking to help alleviate the hurt she could see because that was who she was.

“Maybe. I haven’t really talked to anyone about it.” Not even Rosava after their last live combat mission. Thaia shifted on the suddenly uncomfortable couch. “It’s one thing to blow up a gun emplacement or a tomkah. It’s a whole other thing to blow up a person. But I can’t not use the strengths of my biotics in combat because if I didn’t someone on our side could get killed. But it just gets… I don’t like it. What it does. They lose their lives and I lose—I’m not sure. Something about myself. And there’s only so much of me.”

“What I’m hearing is that you’re sacrificing pieces of yourself on every mission you’re sent on. There will be a point where you’ve nothing else left to give because you can’t give more than yourself.” Lexi reached out and took her wrist, fingers over the metal of her bracelet. “Thaia, why do you stay?”

She shrugged. “Biotics outside combat, I suppose. I can’t flex them as far as they can go anywhere else. So I stay.”

“What about a different position?”

Thaia slid a smile in her direction. She knew it was suggestive but she needed the break in tension.

Lexi swatted her on the arm. “You know what I meant. If you weren’t a commando, what would you do?”

“Go back to school. I managed to pick up undergraduate math and physics degrees but it’s one thing to get those as a commando. Getting PhDs in anything while a commando is pretty much impossible.” The prospect beckoned like it had each time she let herself consider it. “But what I’d like to do is build ships. Maybe even a mass relay. Not models,” she said quickly before Lexi could hit her with a dry comment. “Real ones.”

“Is this this why visiting the derelict is so important to you?”

“Yes and no? Yes, because no one really gets to see krogan ships, yet there’s one just sitting around. The krogan aren’t stupid and I’m guessing they had some good ideas that the majority of the galaxy believes aren’t worth recovering.” The frustration that usually came with about how the galaxy tended to throw krogan work away wasn’t there, not with Lexi, because Lexi was an advocate for krogan, too. “And no, because this trip is also about you. You finally getting to go on an adventure that requires spontaneity with a side of an unhealthy amount of questionable judgment.”

Lexi’s eyes glimmered with something that made Thaia’s heart seize. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

Willing her heart to beat again, Thaia flashed a smile. “Good, because if you’re thanking me, you aren’t mad.”

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself.” Lexi settled back on the couch again, her smile never quite fading. “Do you still have that brochure? I’d like to take a better look at this place you’re bringing us.”

“Even better.” Thaia got up and began fiddling with the vid panel. “I’ve got two more.”

**Aite, 2210.**

Moss the same shade of green as ripening sea-grapes carpeted the ancient hulk of the derelict resting on the forest floor. And the early morning light illuminating the evaporating frost clinging to the moss’s tiny green shoots would’ve been pretty if it hadn’t been cold as fuck.

Thaia exhaled, a cloud of vapor swirling in front of her face, and then returned to walking along the derelict’s hull. There had to be an entrance here somewhere. “So, it’s colder than I thought it would be.”

“I’m still uneasy about not swapping shuttles when we were on Omega,” said Lexi.

“Babe,” Thaia said, giving her a reassuring smile over her shoulder, “we’ll be fine.”

She got a raised eyebrow in return. “You’ve said that multiple times already. Shall I recount the list of what’s gone wrong in the past thirty hours alone?”

“Doesn’t matter how long the list is. We’re here on Aite and exploring this derelict like planned. In other words, we’re fine.” A few steps ahead was the tell-tale outline of an airlock hatch, the door ajar and crooked, the circular viewport’s glass pitted and cloudy. With the ship being krogan-designed and krogan-built, the access hatch was three times the size of a standard airlock on an asari ship. Thaia wedged her fingers in the gap between the hull and the hatch and yanked outward, away from where Lexi stood nearby.

The hatch didn’t move. Biotics it was. She repeated the action and the hatch came off easily. After carefully leaning the hatch against the hull, Thaia jumped up the half-meter or so to reach the entrance and then looked down at Lexi. “You coming or what?”

Lexi made the same jump to land next to her. Then she stood in the hatch frame and peered inside the dark airlock like Thaia was.

Thaia’s insides felt like they were fucking vibrating. She was about to go inside an actual _krogan ship_ and Lexi was right there and her eyes gleamed with curiosity and the little smile at the corner of her mouth curled even more. Exploring a krogan derelict _and_ have it make Lexi happy? This was the best. “I never knew it could be this way.”

“Be what?”

Thaia couldn’t stop grinning and it almost made her say something dumb. “Going an adventure like this with someone I—I’m close to.”

When Lexi looked over at Thaia, the little smile had become a full fledged one. “I’m glad I could share it with you.” And there was a tenderness in her tone that set Thaia’s heart fluttering.

Fucking fuck, she’d almost admitted to Lexi what she’d been avoiding admitting even to _herself_ over the past day and a half. She couldn’t. She couldn’t because it wouldn’t be fair to Lexi, fake-but-real bonded or not, because Thaia had agreed to be friends when they’d discussed furthering their relationship almost two years ago and Lexi’s request had been for friendship. No matter how she felt, Thaia wouldn’t cross that line without Lexi clearly communicating that it could be.

It meant sabotaging any chance of accidentally saying anything about it out loud, but Thaia accepted her fate. “I mean, exploring here with someone who gets it.” Gets _me_, she wanted to say. “I could’ve brought my sisters, but they’d have given me shit the whole time. It’s nice to have someone along who only gives me shit half the time.”

“You are _such_ a shit.” Then Lexi reached over and pushed her.

Thaia went reeling through a short fall, her pack softening her landing on the forest floor. However, the pack did a good job of keeping her there like an upside-down beetle. She grinned up at Lexi. “Is this what krogan do when they fall like this? I’ve never actually seen it. Wait! Record me so I can sent the vid to Uncle Khel and ask him.”

Lexi briefly bit her lip.

Goddess, she was thinking about it and Thaia burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you’re considering it. Have I ever told you that you’re the best? Because you are.”

“Come on.” Lexi crouched down and extended her arm. “Let’s explore this derelict of yours.”

“_Krogan_ derelict.” Thaia accepted her help, relishing how warm her hand was, and then led Lexi into the ship.

Detritus littered the corridors, the shadows broken by shafts of light streaming in through cracks and rents in the hull. Thaia evaluated them to determine where their structural integrity had been breached. In space or on crash landing? Or later, as the centuries rolled by? The overhead in one corridor section had sagged over the years, a gash slanted low enough on the starboard side for Thaia to reach up and lightly scrape her fingers along its corroded edge. The flakes turned to powder the instant she touched it, dust clinging to her fingertips when brought her hand down. The slow march of time had made a once indurate metal as friable as loam soil.

“How did the ship crash?” Lexi asked, digging into a side pocket of her own pack.

“Drack said he heard from someone else who heard from a crew member that the ship got caught in Aite’s gravity well when their propulsion failed. The crew complement took escape pods that were able to break orbit, but the ship was fucked.” Thaia wiped the powder from her hands on her jacket. Tried to. A light coating stubbornly remained and even she wasn’t dumb enough to just leave it there. She considered using some of her water to wash it off.

“So we won’t encounter any remains?”

“Gross.” Thaia grimaced. She’d probably puke if they did. “Wouldn’t they be disintegrated by now if there were?”

Lexi handed her an unfolded sanitizing hand wipe. “It takes a long time for krogan to decompose. Skeletal remains wouldn’t be out of the question.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised that you have those on you.” Thaia caught sight of the absurdly large—given there were only two of them—pack of wipes. “What’s surprising is that you brought enough for a whole squad.”

“I wasn’t taking any chances on either of us ending up with poisoning from the—do you even know what the hull’s composition is?”

Thaia finished cleaning her hands and then stuffed the damp cloth in an empty pocket. “The majority of the hull is a chromium-steel alloy with a silicon dioxide protectant and vacuum-sealed with indium.” She raised her eyebrows at Lexi. “I can keep going.”

“No, you’ve gone well beyond my knowledge of ship construction. You should note that indium is toxic when injected into the bloodstream.”

“Note to self: don’t get stabbed.” Thaia ducked under a twisted support beam as she moved on.

“That should be a constant precautionary measure,” Lexi said from right behind her.

“Fine, I’ll give you that one.” Thaia reached back and grabbed Lexi’s hand but once she realized she was holding her hand, it was too late to just let go. That’d be awkward behavior worthy of questioning. “Let’s go aft. I want to take a good look at the engines.”

It took over an hour to safely work their way back to engineering, but it was well fucking worth the time and effort. The massive engines themselves weren’t in any condition to work, the external parts as heavily corroded as the hull, and the internals only slightly less so, but they were still intact. Intact enough that, under Lexi’s wary gaze, Thaia was able to diagnose what had gone wrong with the engines right before the ship fell into Aite’s gravity well.

The krogan crew had been really close to fixing it, too. The rusted remnants of their tools were grouped right around the problem area. But they were in such delicate condition that Thaia opted to take holos of the tools in place rather than touch them and risking complete disintegration.

“Where do you want to go on the ship once we’re done here? They’ve got to have a medbay or infirmary so the warriors could’ve lived to fight another day.” Thaia glanced over at Lexi and caught a gleam of affection that had replaced the wariness sometime when she hadn’t been looking. She had to quickly turn back to taking holos before she gave Lexi another big, dumb smile. Or even smiled again at all.

There was a strong possibility that Thaia hadn’t stopped smiling since they’d gotten there, except the one time Lexi had brought up the possibility of _remains_.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the medbay,” said Lexi, a thread of eagerness in her voice. “There could be recoverable records. ”

“The medbay it is!”

Thaia did not smile like a dumbass. She did not.

She had.

“You know,” Thaia said as she poked her head into the secondary engine casing, conveniently hiding her dumbass face, “their design was pretty clever. They had a hard time routing the coolants properly, but given further refinement, it could’ve been optimized for—”

A rumble from outside rattled the hull, sending clouds of dust from corrosion streaming from overhead onto the deck.

“What was that?” asked Lexi once the shaking had stopped.

Thaia frowned, engine survey momentarily forgotten. “Sounded like a vehicle. Too loud for a skycar, not loud enough for a decently-sized ship.” She straightened, pushed herself away from the engine, and then bolted toward the door. “Shit, we should go check on the shuttle.”

Then from behind her Lexi said, “Can you _wait_ for me? My legs aren’t as long as yours.”

“Yeah, sorry. Just worried.” The moment Lexi emerged from the engine room, Thaia grabbed her hand and they took off together.

Hampered by newly fallen sections of hull, their return to the airlock hatch took longer than it’d taken to get to engineering. Midway through their run, they heard two more rumbles and picked up their speed, leaping out of the hatch when they got there and then all-out sprinting to where they’d parked the shuttle. But their rush didn’t matter. They were too late by half an hour or more.

The shuttle was gone.

_Fuck_.

Lexi was still catching her breath when Thaia walked into the clearing, picking up a datapad left on the crushed grass. Another check of the sky yielded nothing but the striking view. No shuttle of any kind. Just two huge moons and the planet’s rings.

Thaia flicked on the datapad.

> We’re all fans of your mom’s war ballads. If we kill you, your mom might start writing elegies and shit and those are boring. No one wants that. Leave us alone, we’ll consider the matter closed, and we all get more badass war ballads. Hey, you want to make things real good between us, send the boss an autographed copy of your mom’s latest book.

Well, things could be worse. Things could be a lot worse, like being in another firefight or if they’d been on a deserted planet, or Lexi not being there at all. So what if the shuttle was gone. They were resourceful. This would just be another part of their adventure. However, this turn of events did prove one thing, which became starkly clear when Thaia heard Lexi approach.

“Yes, I admit it,” Thaia said before Lexi could say a word. “You were right.”

Lexi stopped next to her and put her hands on her hips, expression inscrutable. “About?”

“Look, I can only do so much groveling. Let’s just say I am now fully ready and willing to listen to whatever ideas you have. You know, like I should have on Omega when you said we should get a different shuttle.”

“Now? Now you listen to me?” Lexi swept her arm toward the empty clearing. “When our shuttle’s already gone?”

She might’ve been truly pissed. Which, okay, maybe it was somewhat called for. “It’s fine. I’ll just suck it up and message my…” Wait, if she called her dad, Sula would flip her tits when she found out the extent of the danger Thaia had inadvertently put herself and Lexi in. Her mother handled shit like this better but she wouldn’t be done with the first half of her conference yet. Her sisters were out of the question. That left one reasonable pair of adults in her family. “I’ll message Aunt Jarah and Uncle Khel. One of them will come pick us up. Probably not until tomorrow at the earliest but we’ve got emergency supplies so we’ll be fine.”

Decision made, Thaia activated her comm.

The connection started red and stayed red. It didn’t even hit amber, which was odd because even the Terminus Systems maintained stable comms. There also wasn’t anything about Aite’s orbit or the orbits of its moons that would interfere with comms until the wobbly moon smashed into the planet. Still, she did a quick check for atmospheric conditions.

And that explained it. “Fuck.”

“What?” asked Lexi.

“So, um, comms might be problematic for another day or three. Geomagnetic storm.” The storm’s strength meant high aurora activity for vast areas of the planet, though. “Look, if we freeze to death, we’ll be together and watching an awesome light show. It could be worse.”

Goddess, Lexi’s face was _still_ impossible to read and her measured speech pattern wasn’t helping at all. “Now I’m questioning your priorities along with your planning abilities.”

“It’s not always like this,” said Thaia.

Arms crossed, Lexi again eyed the bare patch of ground where their shuttle should have been. “You mean that sometimes things _do_ go to plan?” She sounded excessively accusatory, in Thaia’s opinion.

“Oh, no.” Thaia squinted up at the two moons hanging in the darkening sky. “Mostly these things end in a jail cell.”

“Well, this ‘adventure’ isn’t over yet. There’s nothing that says we won’t be in jail when it is.”

Thaia gave her a smile to convey her over-compensatory optimism. “It’s good to have goals!”

Finally, Lexi looked at her again. No longer impassive but exasperated with a hint of something else. “I can’t believe I bonded with you.”

Thaia would’ve fucking beamed because they were _bonded_ and even though it was fake-but-real, she couldn’t not be happy. But a gust of wind whipped through the trees and the chill it carried forced Thaia to huddle into her jacket. “Besides, we’ve got emergency supplies that should keep us sheltered enough. The ship can be a windbreak. And eventually the storm will pass and we can get out of here.”

A stronger gust of wind swept through, sending leaves raining from trees to land on grass, clothes, and heads.

Thaia picked an errant leaf from Lexi’s crest. Then she leaned closer and twirled the leaf around by its stem held between her thumb and forefinger.

Lexi’s puzzled expression gave way to a tiny smile.

Shit, why did Lexi have to smile like _that_?

Before she could do anything else dumb, Thaia told Lexi the first bad joke to pop into her head. “What did the leaf on the ground say to the leaf on the tree?”

Of course it was one that she should’ve avoided if she knew what was good for her. But, according to her whole fucking family, she’d never known what was good for her in her entire life.

Lexi’s flat delivery informed Thaia that this would be the single time she’d play along. “What?”

“I fell for you.” There. She’d delivered the line in a perfectly mundane, entirely unsuspicious way.

“Goddess, that was terrible.” But Lexi glancing down at the leaves skittering over the dirt couldn’t hide her smile.

“You smiled, I saw it! That means it wasn’t bad.”

“You’re mistaken. That was a grimace.”

It still wasn’t. Lexi looked up again and her eyes reflected the hues of the setting sun and Thaia fell for her again.

Fuck.

Oh, _fuck_.

The ache in her chest told Thaia exactly what she didn’t want to admit—she was in love with Lexi and she wasn’t supposed to be.

Thaia looked away and cleared her throat. “We should go back inside and find the safest place to set up camp for the night.”

“I agree,” said Lexi.

If Thaia had gone by the reasonable tone of Lexi’s voice alone, she might’ve been able to completely fool herself that Lexi was unaffected by any of this. But she’d seen the expression on Lexi’s face before Lexi had composed herself. Thaia wished she knew what it meant.

“I did take a look at the weather forecast earlier today,” Lexi said as they started for the airlock hatch. “It’s going to get dangerously cold tonight. Do you have cold-weather gear in your emergency supplies? Because it’s one thing to stay active in the cold to keep warm, but it’s another thing entirely when you’re forced to be still, such as when you sleep.”

Oh no.

Oh _no_.

“I’ve got a one-person shelter and an oversized sleeping bag.” The only reason it was oversized and not regular-sized was because Thaia was tall. Not that it did anything to help in this case. The standard one-person shelter could fit two if the two didn’t mind getting cozy. Her training was the only reason she’d brought the emergency kit in the first place because it would’ve been stupid not to. But she hadn’t believed they’d be fucking stranded. The worst she’d assumed was that she’d underestimated how long it would take to explore the derelict and they’d have been forced to find a hotel in Adrasteia due to her mistake and not that things would go horribly wrong.

Which they had.

_Fuck_.

Lexi turned to look at her. “_A_ sleeping bag? As in only one?”

Tonight would be torture and there was no getting around it if she didn’t want to die from hypothermia. Thaia sighed in resignation. “Yeah, there’s only one sleeping bag.”


	7. Scenic View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
4\. “I know you didn’t ask for this.”  
16\. “Listen. No, really listen.”  
25\. “I could really eat something.”

**Aite, 2210.**

The beleaguered hull of the derelict creaked and complained through every wind gust, louder in the outer sections and then waning as Thaia and Lexi reached the center of the ship. Since it was the most structurally sound part of the ship, it wouldn’t collapse onto them this far in, and would make it hard for any other intrepid explorers to stumble on them. However, the CIC was too cluttered with detached chairs and tables and lockers to leave room for a tent that would retain heat when they bunked down in plummeting temperatures.

As it happened, the second best option turned out to be the medbay. An alarmed perimeter could be easily established and the flashlights from their omni-tools revealed three overturned exam tables that could be shoved against a bulkhead to make room for the small emergency shelter. The vid panels had long given over to the ravages of time, Thaia noted as she distributed the small emergency lights from her pack along the bases of the walls, but the line of terminals on the aft bulkhead looked intact. The best part was the view—the one with Lexi dropping her pack and immediately beginning to scan the terminals _and_ the one through the large, minimally corroded viewport that formed the medbay’s overhead, where green streaks of auroras danced in the sky.

Okay, fine, and the third view, the one of Lexi’s finely shaped ass when she bent to examine the terminals was spectacular, too.

She really shouldn’t be thinking that.

Lexi did have a nice ass, though.

When Thaia returned from setting up the perimeter, Lexi was still scanning, so Thaia took stock of their food supplies. Since they had a water supply kit, complete with two extra plasteel cups, water wasn’t a concern. However, for some fucking reason, the meals weren’t marked with full descriptions. And, due to the storm, Thaia didn’t have access to the extranet to look them up. Surprise meals it was. Still better than the nutrition bars that were also in the kit for when things got dire. _Really_ dire.

“Each of these need a power source,” said Lexi, barely restrained eagerness lifting her voice. “But the physical drives are intact. There’s a strong possibility that we can retrieve actual data.”

“Pretty sure I can rig up something to pull it if there’s any left to be pulled.” There were small repair kits in the emergency supplies, one of which was for electronics. If any of the tiny eezo cores in the terminals could be salvaged, it wouldn’t be too hard to rig up a reader and transmitter. Then they could sync an omni to the transmitter attached to the drive. This deep in a ship shielded to prevent comm interference in space meant electronics would work properly.

Lexi’s attention was on the terminals again, but she idly fiddled with her bonding bracelet as she looked. “Any medical data—scans especially—would be from before the genophage. It’s appalling that something like this wasn’t made a priority to track down. Or track down at all.”

This was the investment return Thaia had wished for. Lexi this electrified by her curiosity was worth every bullet dodged on Omega.

Thaia loved seeing her like this.

Thaia loved _her_.

Sabotage time again. “Hey, Lexi, why did the house go to the doctor?”

“You—”

“It had a lot of window panes.”

Lexi sighed. “You ask a heavy price if you’re going to tell those jokes the entire time.”

“The jokes are free.”

“Is there a price I could pay that would make you stop?”

“Nope.” Thaia grabbed the electronics kit, a spare shirt to protect any salvaged drives, crouched next to the closest terminal, and then went to work.

At first, Lexi leaned against one of the knocked-down exam tables nearby and quietly watched. But after a while, she began clearing more areas of the room.

Accessing the insides of the terminals was easy enough with a flash-forged omni-blade. Following the delicate remains of the wires got Thaia to the power supply that came out without much effort. However, fishing out the ancient OSD proved problematic because there was a pin that needed to be triggered and Thaia didn’t have a tool small enough. Well, _she_ didn’t. A doctor might. “Lexi, you said you brought a medkit, right?”

“I did.”

Thaia looked at her over the top edge of the terminal. “Does it have a pair of tweezers?”

“Does it—? Thaia, it wouldn’t be a proper medkit without a pair. Mine has three.”

That was her Lexi, going above and beyond three times over. “Can I please borrow one of them?”

“You can have one. I don’t want it back if you’re using it in those conditions.”

Thaia surveyed the collected dust and grime of centuries inside the terminal casing. “Probably for the best.”

Then she watched as Lexi removed her kit from her pack and opened it. She set aside several sealed items and packets and… a cup? Then a tin?

Goddess, Thaia really, really tried not to laugh. She did. “You have _tea_ in your medkit? Babe, you might want to re-evaluate the importance of tea in your life.”

“What I’m hearing,” Lexi said without looking up, “is that someone here doesn’t want to share my tea later.”

“Message received. Tea is something that absolutely belongs in a medkit.”

“I’m glad we could reach an agreement.” Lexi still hadn’t looked up, but there was definitely a smile there.

“One question: is it a standard medkit supply?”

“It is for anyone who has to deal with the likes of you.” Lexi passed her the pair of tweezers she’d removed from its sterile packaging. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Armed with the right tool for the job, Thaia had the pin out in seconds and the OSD right after. Then she gently as fuck set the old-ass OSD on the shirt waiting on the floor next to her. Due to the materials used and methods of their fabrication, they could last centuries or longer. Thaia’s grandmother, at over eleven hundred years old, had showed her and the rest of Thaia’s sisters holos she’d had on a few working older-type OSDs dating back to _her_ childhood. These krogan ones were even older, but the one Thaia had just pulled looked in decent shape. Now she had to pull the three others plus the power supplies to see what she had to work with.

When Thaia moved onto the next terminal, she carried the OSD with her on the shirt so she wouldn’t step on the fucking thing. Because if she did, it could break, Lexi would be sad, and Thaia would feel like the worst fucking person to ever have lived. Luckily, she didn’t step on any of them as she made her way through each terminal, idly chatting with Lexi as she worked. Then she brought the OSDs and the power supplies over to the patch of floor Lexi had cleaned.

“What are your thoughts?” Lexi asked once Thaia had the OSDs, power supply parts, and repair kit arrayed on her donated shirt on the floor in front of her, Lexi sitting on the opposite side.

Thaia moved to scan the first power supply but her stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten a fucking thing since breakfast. “That once I’ve got this working, I could really eat something.”

Lexi gave her a flat look.

“What?” Thaia raised her eyebrows. “One of the pre-packaged meals.”

The look kept going.

Thaia sighed. “Okay, I’d be offended if I hadn’t made the joke you’re glaring at me for over an hour ago. Anyway, the meal packs are over in the opened emergency kit. The water’s there, too.”

“How long do you think it’ll take?” asked Lexi. “The temperature’s falling steadily and I doubt there will be enough room in that tent for you to work.”

“I can work in the cold.” Yes, excellent excuse for not cuddling in the same sleeping bag with Lexi to ward off the bone-deep chill that was approaching except Lexi would obviously not fall for it.

She did not. “Work? I doubt it. But I have every confidence in your ability to whine in the cold.”

“You keep burning me like that and I’m not going to have to worry about frostbite.” The omni’s scanner beam bathed each power supply in green light as Thaia checked their cores for signs of life.

“Sadly, verbal burns do nothing to mitigate physical cold. But between the shelter and the sleeping bag, I don’t think tonight will prove dangerous.”

_Maybe not if you’re talking frostbite or hypothermia_, Thaia did not say out loud as she concentrated hard on the scans and did not look up at Lexi even though she could feel Lexi’s gaze on her. Then her attention was fully taken by the scan results and—fuck. The supplies were all completely dead. “No working power cores.” She sat back, propping herself up on heavy arms.

Lexi touched Thaia’s shoulder as she crossed over to the supply kit. “To be fair to you, working power cores were a long shot. What about the data?”

“None of the storage drives have any external defects. That’s a good sign, but we can’t determine if the data’s still there without a reader interface for drives this old.” Thaia wasn’t sure why she felt _this_ defeated. No, she did know. She’d been looking forward to seeing more of Lexi’s happiness in learning something new in one of her specialties. She still might see it, but it wouldn’t be tonight.

Or maybe it would. Lexi’s eyes were still bright with the possibilities. “So once we get back to civilization, we might be able to take a look at what’s on them?”

“In theory. We should be able to find an old reader somewhere on the Citadel.” Thaia weighed their best options for finding something niche like that and then realized the best person to ask was a person she Did Not Appreciate Right Now. She sighed. “In all honesty, Nef would probably know where to get one. Or have one. She probably has one.”

“If Nef has one, she can keep it,” Lexi said, but so pointed that Nef probably fucking felt it on the opposite side of the galaxy. “In fact, you shouldn’t accept or buy anything Nef offers you from now on.”

“But the limited edition Ascension! The one that’s now sold out everywhere forever! And the skyball tickets! We never would’ve witnessed Armali’s historic comeback rally without them! And—”

“Have you learned _nothing_?” Lexi’s incredulous outrage had her stop perusing meal choices in favor of delivering a glare to Thaia. “She nearly got us killed on several occasions in a single day. We’re stranded here for the same reason, which is that she sold you a stolen shuttle.” She tilted her head to the side and her tone lost its edge. “Though I have been wondering how they knew we were here.”

“That might’ve been my fault. My guess is someone overheard me talking about the derelict and Aite when we were on the Gozu docks.” Admitting defeat, Thaia pushed the defunct power supplies into a corner and then carefully rolled up the OSDs in the shirt. As Lexi returned to rummaging through the rations, Thaia tucked the wrapped OSDs into the hard case of the emergency kit. That’d keep them safe until they got back to the Citadel. Then she joined Lexi in searching through their available food supply.

“Are these not labeled?” asked Lexi.

“They’re from a batch manufactured fifty-ish years ago that was missing labels but was otherwise perfectly fine so I got them at cost.”

“Were the saved credits worth the gamble you’re forced to take now?”

Thaia surveyed the pile of mystery meals in beige synthetic packaging. “No. Might even be worse than the time my squad tried an eight-hundred-year-old ration on a dare.” It had looked perfectly fine and the scan their medic had insisted on told them it was as fresh as the day it was put into stasis, but it had still tasted _weird_. “Don’t worry, we had the medic check it before we ate it. It was fine. Just odd. Seasoning was off.”

“Cultural changes in tastes and the influences of other species’ culinary traditions would shift preferences over time.” Lexi picked out a meal from the far left and settled down on the clear patch of floor.

“I guess. Still weird.” Thaia selected her own meal, grabbed her water, and then sat down across from Lexi. The seal hissed when she broke it, revealing one of the meals she had just short of loathed the last time she’d been forced to eat one. Fuck. She eyed Lexi’s rations. “Oh, you got the better one.”

“Touch my food and I will end you,” Lexi said, pointing a fork in her direction before she took another bite of noodles.

“The love’s gone.” Since rations couldn’t be wasted and Thaia was hungry as fuck, she ate them, though unhappily and grudgingly. The bread was stale. The biscuits were so dry and crumbly that she was forced to refill her water halfway through the small pack.

Lexi finished eating before Thaia—probably because her rations had been the _good_ ones—and retrieved cups, the tiny portable heater for food and water that was included in the emergency kit, and the tea from her medkit before returning to her spot. “Since you didn’t steal my dinner, I’ll share my tea with you.”

Thaia grinned. “Love’s back!” Not that it had gone anywhere in the first place and _goddess_ this just kept getting worse. She might have to avoid the word ‘love’ for the next fucking decade. And that was only if she could manage it for the rest of tonight.

Like with their late dinner, the odds weren’t in her favor.

So Thaia read the label of Lexi’s ‘emergency’ tea tin while ignoring the little ball of warmth in her chest that Lexi had liked the tea enough to bring it with her. “Is that the tea I picked up on Elysium?”

“Yes.” Lexi’s fond smile was there in her voice even though she didn’t look up from her preparations. “I nearly had to fight my colleagues when they tried it and subsequently attempted to steal the rest of my supply. It’s quite good. If either of us visit Elysium again, we should get more.” She opened the tea tin and frowned. Deeply. “Let me amend my statement: my colleagues _did_ steal the rest of my supply. We have been denied tea.”

“Maybe not.” Thaia stretched out along the floor to reach her pack a half body length away and then dragged it back with her. After a momentary search, she emerged triumphantly with the box of tea tins from Lusia and set each one down in front of Lexi. “There, now you’ve got three to choose from.”

The cold had brought the indigo to Lexi’s cheeks again.

Lexi reached out but then hesitated, hand briefly hovering over the tins before she picked up the middle one. “You always do this,” she said softly, slowly rotating the tin in her hand. “You always bring back tea for me from wherever your unit is sent.”

“You like tea.” It was simple, really. It wasn’t something hard to do and seeing Lexi’s smile whenever Thaia gave her the new teas was worth it.

The tin went still and Lexi looked directly at her, greenish light from the strengthening auroras above reflected in the grey.

Lexi had the coolest eyes. The irises always took on hues from the ambient light and could change multiple times over the course of a day and night. And those amazing eyes were still focused on her and Thaia couldn’t look away from them and her heart fucking froze. Goddess, it was just _tea_. Well, just tea to her, anyway. Lexi and tea had a relationship on a whole other level.

Hoping her smile didn’t look as forced as it felt, Thaia said, “Okay, okay, you don’t merely like tea, you love tea. No, you’re _in_ love with tea.”

And Thaia was in love with _her_. But it lodged there in her throat, preventing her from saying anything else.

Lexi laughed, but it was shallow, vanishing before she pressed her lips together and busied herself with the solemn, meticulous task of brewing tea.

Seizing the chance to escape the heaviness in her chest, Thaia gathered the packaging from their rations and put them away. Then she set up the small shelter directly beneath the clearest portion of the medbay’s overhead window and carried their packs inside. By the time she’d finished, the encroaching cold was sharp on her cheeks. Not yet ready to retreat, Thaia spread the tent’s rainfly on the floor next to it and sat down, leaning back against one of the overturned exam beds so she could look up at Aite’s spectacular night sky.

“Here,” Lexi said, pressing a warm cup into her hands and then sitting down next to her. “This should take the edge off the chill.”

Holding the cup close to her chin with both hands, Thaia inhaled the rising steam and its sweet, spicy aroma. While not a perfect match, it wasn’t unlike the tea Aunt Jarah would give to Thaia and her sisters on evenings when they’d stayed out on the water too late and they’d run inside, shivering their asses off—both as children and as adults. Thaia’s shoulders loosened as she settled into the comforting familiarity brought by the memory and Lexi’s presence. Quiet fell over them like a blanket as they watched the blue-green flames of the auroras.

“Which one was the killer moon?” Lexi asked without lifting her head from Thaia’s shoulder.

“The future perpetrator of an extinction-level event is the moon on the right. Litae. Its name comes from a personification of prayers in human mythology. The Litae were healers who chased Aite—which means ‘folly’—but Aite was too fast and always outran them. Aite must’ve pissed them off here though because they’re going to catch her and fuck her shit up in two centuries.”

“A new allegory for what happens when you don’t listen to doctors, then.” Lexi laughed and it ended with a hum that carried through Thaia’s jacket and into her chest and it ached.

The bonding wasn’t _real_. But repeating that to herself didn’t ease the ache. Repeating it to herself didn’t change how content she was because Lexi was right there with her. She wanted to say something but she wasn’t sure exactly what.

“Hey, Lexi, what kind of fish comes out at night?”

Okay, so that probably shouldn’t have been her go-to.

Lexi sighed. “What kind?”

“Starfish.”

While Lexi’s laugh didn’t escape entirely, Thaia felt it just as she had earlier in vibrations through her jacket. Then Lexi lifted her head, leaving Thaia’s shoulder cold. “Why are you like this?”

“Don’t know.” Thaia gripped her empty cup harder and stared into it like it held the answers to unspoken questions. “That’s a question you’ll have to ask my parents.”

“I’ve met them,” Lexi said in a tone approaching a scold. “They aren’t to blame.”

If she kept holding the cup, she wouldn’t throw her arm around Lexi’s shoulders like she wanted to. It felt odd to be this restrained. She’d never been self-conscious about it before and Lexi had told her a long time ago that she didn’t mind Thaia’s innate physicality. Yet now she stopped herself. “How about Meir?”

Another laugh. “Now there’s a strong candidate.”

A meteorite blazed a path through the flickering auroras.

“Aite’s giving us quite a show,” Lexi said after a moment. “This would be a truly romantic part of the honeymoon everyone insists we’re on if _you_ wouldn’t insist on telling bad jokes. And if we weren’t stranded with a slight chance of dying.”

If Thaia couldn’t tell bad jokes, she would’ve stopped breathing an hour ago, but she couldn’t say that, either. Deflecting from herself and onto Lexi it was. “Isn’t being stranded a trope in those ‘historical fiction’ books you read?”

“Narrative technique.” Lexi’s diction held the precision of a scholar and it was a dead giveaway that Thaia had gotten under her skin.

She prodded a little more. “That’s just the long way to spell ‘trope’ and you know it.”

“How do you even know about what’s in those books?”

“They’re on the bookshelves. Right out in the open. I had to move stacks of them around when I was installing the Ascension.” There’d been enough that she hadn’t had to lift weights for three days straight because moving all the books multiple times had worn her out.

Lexi set her cup aside and leaned her head against Thaia’s shoulder again, arms threaded through hers. “Have you read any?”

“All of them.” They hadn’t been bad. Maybe pulpy, but entertaining enough that she’d read one and then just kept going.

“You’re serious?” Lexi turned and perched her chin on Thaia’s shoulder. “All?”

“It’s an interest of yours and I was curious about it. And now I’m waiting to find out how bad things will get when Matriarch Berenike’s faction finds out that it was Novia who essentially started the war with the shit she pulled over those navigation charts.”

“It wasn’t her fault.” Lexi returned to watching the sky, but she didn’t lift her head. “She wasn’t going to sell them.”

“I’m telling you, the sea people aren’t going to care about her intentions. What they’re going to do is lose their collective shit and it’ll get ugly.” In their place, Thaia absolutely would. Novia’s actions were going to lead to the Naumakhia losing their home, like if someone took the bay away from Thaia’s family.

“It could.”

“_And_ Kallias will go with them and never confess her love for Laena, then Laena would be left thinking her love’s unrequited and that’d be tragic as fuck.” Thaia’s sense of irony didn’t catch up with her until well after she’d finished her sentence. Right, if they just talked to each other, everything would be fine. Because that’s how it worked if you were the kind of person who could use their words.

Words were _hard_. And uncooperative. And jumbled. Like the tangle of emotions wrapped inside her heart and how the fuck could words untangle that? How could she put into words that simply seeing Lexi could make a sunlit day even brighter? That when Lexi smiled at her, Thaia’s limbs felt as light as when she readied to jump into the bay from the cliffs towering above?

She couldn’t. But even if she could, she couldn’t _say_ them because they were supposed to just be friends. Fake-but-real bonding or not because Lexi hadn’t said otherwise and it wouldn’t be fair of Thaia to drop something that heavy. So maybe it was lucky that she and words were barely on any terms, much less good ones.

However, Laena and Kallias already existed in words so they could at least find out about them. It sadly required Thaia shift Lexi from her shoulder, earning a frown in the process. “That reminds me. I have something for you.”

Lexi crossed her arms, a sliver of her bonding bracelet peeking from the cuff of her jacket to catch the light from Litae. Warmth suffused Thaia’s entire fucking being when she saw it.

Up until Lexi said, “If it’s another bad joke, you can keep it.”

“You spelled ‘good’ wrong.” Thaia stretched out along the floor to grab her pack. Except her pack was in the fucking tent, which she forgot until her entire front was as cold as the fucking floor. A gust of wind slammed into the derelict and the hull became a chorus of creaks carried on the coldest fucking draft to hit Thaia in her entire life. Her eyes stung and watered. For one agonizing second, she thought her tears would freeze. And maybe her eyeballs. Shit, her face might freeze to the bare metal deck.

Thaia gingerly lifted her head to test her theory. It moved freely and she launched herself to her feet before that changed.

“We should get into the shelter before the temperature drops any further,” Lexi said, omni displaying a real-time report of an ambient temperature that was dropping faster than a turian learning how to swim.

“Is the sensor on your omni broken?” Thaia asked.

“Part of me hopes so.” Lexi took her by the elbow and directed her toward the shelter. “Come on. Before either of us get frostbite.”

“Do eyes get frostbite? Because I thought my eyeballs were going to freeze.” Thaia crawled into the shelter behind Lexi, doing her best to _not_ look at Lexi’s ass. As a result, she got perilously close to making herself sick because she kept talking to distract herself yet picked an awful subject. “Can eyeballs freeze? What happens when they thaw? Actually, you know what, I don’t want to know.”

“If you change your mind,” Lexi said as she crawled over to her pack on the opposite side of the tent, “let me know and I can explain the entire process to you.”

Thaia only looked at her ass _once _over that entire sentence, which was a miracle because the tent was so fucking small. It was a shelter billed as one-person, built just large enough to accommodate a commando and her gear, meaning room for a pack, weapons, and combat armor. Not only did it leave little free space for maneuvering around, it also left far too few plausible places to look when you were avoiding looking at someone else.

Thaia rummaged through her pack for the ARC Soraya had hidden. Now seemed like a _really_ good time to spring it on Lexi considering its compelling story could distract her like other books had done for her at home. And none of _those_ new books had been ones from Lexi’s favorite series like this one. Spending the night next to her while she devoured a new book was comfortable and familiar—the complete opposite from the awkward of last night and the potentially devastating awkward of tonight.

She grabbed the book from between a spare pair of pants and a bundle of socks and then held it up for Lexi to see. “Up for some new reading material?”

A blush took to Lexi’s cheeks when she accepted it, a broad smile given to Thaia before her attention went to the book. “If you’re going so far as to pick up a black market ARC, you’re more invested in this series than I thought,” she said as she thumbed through it.

The truth came out before Thaia could stop it. “I’m invested in you.”

The pages fluttered back down and Lexi looked up at Thaia, the color still high on her cheeks, her smile lingering.

_Fuck_.

“I mean, invested in your happiness,” Thaia said because that changed things.

Brow furrowed, Lexi tilted her head to the side.

Because adding _more_ words had changed it by making it worse, Thaia mumbled an excuse about setting up the rainfly because something something it’ll help the tent retain heat better, and then rolled out.

And was promptly smacked in the face by the cold, cheeks stinging, every breath a cloud of tiny knives stabbing her lungs. Jumping up and down to keep warm did fucking _nothing_, so she leapt toward the rainfly because the quicker she could get it over the shelter, the quicker she could throw herself back into the comparatively nice, warm tent. But she misjudged her momentum and her leap took her too far. Her booted foot landed on the edge of the rainfly and she slipped, whacking her knee on the corner of an overturned desk that’d been hiding in the shadows.

“Ow, _fuck_.”

“Are you okay?” Lexi asked from within the tent.

“Yeah, fine.” Thaia went to rub her injured knee only for the cold to attack her hands. She ignored the knee and hastily pulled on her gloves. But the painful prickling of warming skin didn’t abate until she’d picked up the rainfly and gotten halfway through attaching it to the tent. It was a race between frostbite and a secure shelter that she won by the narrowest of margins.

Then the prospect of frostbite chased her back into the tent, uncaring of what might be in it aside from air _not _determined to commit murder by frostbite.

After Thaia finished sealing up the entrance, she cautiously turned to discover that Lexi was already in the sleeping bag. Not only already in the sleeping bag, which saved Thaia from having to endure seeing her entirely nude, but also reading her new book. Before she could second guess herself, Thaia scrambled to her pack, braced herself, and began stripping. She’d managed to get her pants off—her fingers were still on the chilly side and buttons could get fucked—and had started lifting the hem of her shirt when Lexi turned around.

Fuck.

“Did you get hurt out there?” Lexi asked, managing to keep the sleeping bag up to her shoulders.

Of course she was being kind. “I hit my knee but my ego took the brunt of the damage.” _Act normal._ “How’s the book?”

“Good so far.” Lexi smiled and held it partway up, the motion revealing the tops of her tits and _goddess_ this wasn’t fair. “You should read it, too.”

Thaia yanked her shirt up and over her head and she couldn’t see anything but cloth and the cold began winding around her torso but that was fine. “I will.” Normal. She sounded normal. She could do this. Having regrouped, Thaia finished with her shirt and tossed it into her pack. Then she realized that Lexi was still looking at her and not at the fucking book and Thaia may or may not have panicked.

She panicked.

“Hey, Lexi, why did the shoe fall in love with the boot?”

She was the dumbest person on this entire fucking planet if that was her go-to joke. What the fuck.

“That’s a setup and I’m done cooperating,” said Lexi, who rolled back over and returned to her book.

Thank the fucking goddess.

Not that Thaia could escape having to deliver the punchline to her joke. “Because they were sole-mates.”

Like many others, Thaia did want to find a soulmate. The concept was comforting. And, right now, if questioned about what she’d look for in a potential soulmate, she’d just point to Lexi. Because Thaia Kallistrate was apparently an idiot who’d fallen in love with her best friend and couldn’t use her fucking words to save her life, even if Lexi told her that she’d changed her mind. So she’d never find out if Lexi was her soulmate. Or however that worked. Maybe she should read up on it more.

Then again, Lexi waited until she had started crawling into the sleeping bag—because Thaia had finished stripping down to nothing and it was cold as fuck so she had no choice—to ask, “I’m sensing a theme in your jokes. Is there something you’re trying to tell me?”

“Yeah,” said Thaia, wishing she wasn’t blushing but at least Lexi still had her back to her as she slid in, “bad jokes.”

“Then you’ve met with success.” Lexi laughed at the end of her sentence and it sent tremors into Thaia because they were skin-to-skin and there was distressingly little room in the sleeping bag. In fact, there was barely enough room to keep the sleeping bag’s material up to their noses and every centimeter of Thaia’s body was pressed against Lexi’s back and she had zero space to retreat.

And Thaia didn’t have a book to keep her distracted like the one Lexi held close to her face. While she was loath to interrupt Lexi’s reading, she needed something intellectual to keep her occupied. Something that would take so much mental processing power that there wouldn’t be room for any _other_ thoughts like how they were both naked and excruciatingly close together and honestly Thaia’s skin felt like it could moonlight as a fire-starter.

Languages. Learning those always required an excessive amount of brainpower.

“What do you think about teaching me some of those hand gestures?” she said, internally wincing at how loud her voice was compared to the quiet between wind gusts. “The ones the people on Omega were using.”

“I don’t mind.” Lexi set the book aside and rolled over to face her and Thaia realized that she may have made a mistake. Front-to-back was way easier to handle than front-to-front.

Handle.

She was going to die.

“However,” Lexi continued, “we’ll have to sit up because it’s too awkward of an angle this way.”

Okay, maybe she wouldn’t all the way die.

Then they pushed themselves to a sitting position and she changed her mind about the dying thing again. There was so little space that they had to resort to their hands between their faces because their tits took up too much room and Thaia _desperately_ needed to think about anything other than her tits against Lexi’s. “So I think I’ve got the ‘sit the fuck down’ gesture already,” she said maybe a tiny bit too fast but it was intelligible. Then she gestured like Lexi had impatiently gestured at her twice in Soraya’s kitchen.

Lexi laughed. “Close. Here.” Her hands moved Thaia’s into the correct position. But when Lexi touched her, Thaia instantly realized she hadn’t made a mere simple mistake.

She had made a mistake of epic proportions.

Her skin burned wherever Lexi’s fingers touched, and it flared when Thaia imagined what else those fingers could do in places that throbbed at the stray thought. And Lexi’s smooth voice should have soothed instead of stoking the flames—which was exactly what it was doing—yet calling off the lesson now would be… shit, a _vorcha_ would see through it.

And Thaia did want to learn this. It was part of what made Lexi who she was and she wanted to know Lexi as well and as deeply as possible.

Of course there were other ways to learn about someone deeply. Ragna had mentioned it in the ceremony. Maybe it was hazy as fuck, but Thaia was fairly certain there’d been mentions of discovering the depths of each other’s souls and thriving while finding unity in one. That sure sounded like learning about someone deeply to her.

She wasn’t helping herself at fucking all.

Thaia concentrated on the substance of Lexi’s explanations and _nothing else._

She tried. She did. But her imagination was assessing other parts of the situation it believed important, such as if anything it wished turned out to be permissible, there wasn’t enough space in the sleeping bad for proper exploration. Or leverage, for that matter.

Goddess, _think about nothing else except the smart things Lexi says._

It almost worked.

“Some gestures,” said Lexi, “are more subtle, likely influenced by the elcor.” She gently quarter-curled Thaia’s pinky finger. “Make this sign near your elbow and you’ll be agreeing to pay for someone else’s meal instead of splitting the bill.” She curled Thaia’s finger by another quarter. “Which would be this.” Then she guided Thaia through a series of movements, each slightly different from the other, while explaining how many species living on Omega—asari, salarian, krogan, volus, turian, and more—influenced it. “There isn’t much human influence since they haven’t been around long enough. But I suspect the language will incorporate some of their body language quirks as the centuries go on, as it always has.”

Somehow, Lexi had made language lessons enticing. It was her mind, the engagement in it, that same spark of intellect that accompanied Lexi’s work. And Thaia loved that about her and it was as hot as any of the curves Thaia was doing her best not to think about and thinking only about Lexi’s intelligence was supposed to have _helped_ this clusterfuck—without the fuck—and it had _betrayed her_ and now it was that much worse. So she stopped looking at their hands that could be grasping other parts of each other’s bodies and at Lexi’s face again.

A mistake of mythical proportions.

The glimmer in the grey of Lexi’s eyes made Thaia forget how to breathe.

She had to—she had to change things back to mundane. Back to the simple lesson of learning part of the Omegan dialect. Something common. Something boring. So Thaia carefully extricated her hand from Lexi’s and replicated a gesture she’d seen several people in the market and elsewhere on Omega make toward her. “This one means hello, right?”

Lexi’s pupils dilated. “That is… not what that means.”

Thaia knew she shouldn’t ask what it meant.

So she immediately asked, “What’s it mean?”

“It’s the other person asking you if you want to fuck, likely in the nearest semi-acceptable venue,” Lexi said while still looking directly at her.

In Thaia’s strong, self-preservational opinion, Lexi shouldn’t be allowed to say the word _fuck_ because she used the word so rarely that it sounded like a proposition all on its own. And it wasn’t. It _wasn’t_. But she couldn’t keep working on the gestures. Not like this. She cleared her throat. “Maybe we should call it a night. Try to sleep.”

It brought a sly smile to Lexi’s face. “How many times were you unknowingly propositioned?”

“A lot.” Even if Thaia had known she was being repeatedly propositioned, she would’ve turned them all down because the person who’d been leading her through Omega was the one she wanted.

“It’s easy to understand why you would be,” said Lexi, her gaze on Thaia unmistakably evaluating.

_Fuck_.

Breathing was a long-forgotten memory. Each and every one of Thaia’s microscales in contact with Lexi’s skin was alight. Her eyes dropped to the tattoo that graced Lexi’s chin, followed its painted path over the most delectable part of her lower lip. Thaia wanted to take it between her own, scrape her teeth against it, draw that hum from Lexi that Thaia had only heard the luscious beginnings of in that alcove and—

She needed to get out of here. There were lines she had agreed not to cross and even though they’d been smudged and smudged again over the past couple days, it didn’t change the fact that they existed. Thaia looked so quickly at the entrance that she could’ve given herself whiplash. “I should go... check the perimeter I set earlier.”

Lexi took Thaia’s hand with hers again. Not guiding this time. Stopping. “You’re trying to leave.”

“Yes. Yes, I am. And if you’d just give me my hand back, I can get to the leaving part.”

“Why?”

“Because my hand doesn’t detach?”

Lexi’s free hand made the exasperation gesture. “I know more about anatomy than you do and you know exactly what I meant. Why are you trying to leave?”

Instead of Thaia escaping the sleeping bag and the tent, the truth enacted its own desperate escape. If Lexi knew she was teetering on the line they’d drawn, she’d let her go. “I wanted to kiss you.” Her jaw flexed. Past tense wasn’t right. If she even so much as glanced at Lexi, she craved more of her in every way possible. She looked past her, at the beige synthetic material of the tent’s wall. “I _want_ to kiss you.”

“You could ask me.”

“It isn’t that simple of a—” Thaia broke off and risked looking directly at her again, accompanying it with the gesture for exasperation. She had to get Lexi to understand that she needed to drop this. “Lexi, I want to kiss you until you can’t remember what words are and that really isn’t something you do with someone who’s just a best friend.”

Lexi’s breath hitched. Her hand slipped to Thaia’s wrist, pressing lightly against the bracelet there, like she had when she’d first clasped it on. “We bonded yesterday morning. Whether we acknowledge it or not, that alone has changed things between us. And,” she said, running a finger lightly alongside the bracelet to leave wisps of fire in its wake, “you still haven’t asked if you can kiss me.”

Thaia stared at her because she tried and failed to make sense of what was going on. Nor could she attempt to because Lexi’s touch was stealing every single one of her mental faculties and some would argue she hadn’t many to begin with.

And Lexi’s suddenly firm voice was kindling fed to the fire. “Are you going to make me ask you?”

_Fuck_.

Thaia looked toward the compact tent’s sealed entrance, torn between running into the cold or facing the conflagration.

Lexi grasped her chin with her free hand, forcing Thaia to make deliberate eye contact. “Listen,” she said, and then leaned in closer when Thaia tried to look away. “No, really listen. I’ve changed my mind.”

The words broke free from their binds in Thaia’s heart before Lexi could unwittingly lock them up again by taking back what she said. “Good, that’s good because I’m in love with you.”

Except Thaia had said it so fast it’d come out like the winner of a krogan baby naming contest—_iminlovewithyou_ but spelled _ehlowiu_ and pronounced like an obnoxious sneeze.

“What?” Lexi peered at Thaia’s eyes, her demeanor shifting into clinical mode. _Doctor_ mode. “Are you feeling okay?”

Oh, so it’d been so incomprehensible that it sounded like Thaia was slurring her words and now Lexi probably thought she had hypothermia or something even though Thaia’s skin was on fucking fire and had been for the past hour.

“Fine. I’m fine.” Which might’ve been mildly convincing if it hadn’t been strangled. Or she could get her heart to stop trying to fucking beat its way out of her chest.

“Are you sure?” Lexi’s brow furrowed and her gaze bore into Thaia’s but in a concerned physician way and not the way it’d been before Thaia had fucked things up at a matriarchal level. “Because—”

“I love you.” There. She’d said it before the line had been redrawn and said it clearly that time, not like someone about to lose consciousness due to hypothermia.

Lexi went still, her grip on Thaia’s chin slackening. Then she sat back as far as the sleeping bag’s confines would allow, their new separation an infinite chasm of centimeters.

“I’m in…” The rest of Thaia’s confession withered and died. Goddess, she’d misheard Lexi saying she’d changed her mind and Lexi must’ve said she _hadn’t_ changed her mind and now Thaia had overstepped and ruined the best thing in her life and she needed to escape. Go somewhere else even if it meant the cold but it wasn’t like she’d feel it anyway with everything suddenly numb.

But before Thaia could will herself to move, Lexi returned, reaching out for a tentative touch on Thaia’s wrist, her eyes shining brighter than the auroras. “Let me hear it again. Please.”

Feeling slowly seeped its way back into Thaia, the heaviness lifting from her chest and loosening its grip on her throat. “I’m in love with you. I don’t know for how long but even after I realized it, I couldn’t _tell_ you because we’d—”

Lexi cupped her cheek before she said with perfect clarity, “Thaia, I want you to kiss me.”

Though her gaze briefly dropped to Lexi’s lips, Thaia’s brow furrowed. Lexi had just drawn away and now she was closer than ever and her heart couldn’t take another misstep. “You’re sure?”

“_Yes_.”

The softness of it surprised her. With the turn their kiss on Omega had taken before the interruption, Thaia had expected the force of a breaking wave that had gathered energy crossing the deepest sea. Instead, when she finally touched Lexi’s lips with her own, it was the gentle wash of water over a shallow shoal. Lexi’s hand caressed its way from Thaia’s cheek to cup the back of her neck, taking advantage of her hold to draw them both down to the floor.

Thaia went willingly, relishing the feel of Lexi’s soft curves because it wasn’t crossing a line anymore—it was the beginning of a new path.

“If you hadn’t convinced me before,” Lexi said through a hum as Thaia lined feathery kisses under her jaw, “I’m absolutely convinced now.”

“How convinced _were_ you?” She lifted her head and reached with long fingers to cradle Lexi’s face. When she rested her thumb over the tattoo on her chin and met Lexi’s gaze, Thaia couldn’t help but stare at grey eyes as captivating as Parnitha’s light on the sea.

A smile was there, curling at the corners of Lexi’s lips. “If not for the mortal peril and the lack of privacy, you could have had me against that wall.”

“I would’ve liked to.” Body thrumming, Thaia ran an eager palm up Lexi’s arm to thread their fingers together. “I _could_ pin your hand over your head again, but then our hands would be ice in less than five minutes. They touch anywhere afterward and someone would scream. If either of us are going to scream,” she said against Lexi’s lips, “I’d rather it be in the good way.”

Lexi’s shiver had nothing to do with the cold. Not when she grasped Thaia’s hip and arched up, erasing what minuscule distance had been left between them. “If I recall correctly, we’ve plenty of walls and privacy at home. And I would welcome another go at it.”

“What do you want now?” Thaia lightly dragged her teeth across that full lower lip before drawing back to give Lexi space to answer.

“You.”

Thaia’s breath caught. Hearing that husky tone from _Lexi _sent heat searing up her spine. And with it came a roaring hunger for unity that Thaia hadn’t known could exist in any person, much less herself. She had to get her shit together. At this rate, she’d be diving into Lexi’s mind before either of them figured out how to properly touch anyone anywhere.

Maybe, for once, her ability to be a shit at any given moment would give her an advantage. “Good,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as frayed as the edges of her mind, “because my other plan was to steal your new book and read it out loud to you.”

“If you’ve a rasp in your voice like you do right now, I would happily listen to you read to me.” Lexi relinquished her hold on Thaia’s hip and glided up to find the furrows beneath Thaia’s crest, threatening Thaia’s attempt to recover.

_Fuck_. Heat gathered at her neck, surging with every light scratch of a clever finger, but Thaia refused to lose focus. “Yeah, but not in this case. My hands would get cold holding the book and then when I got them back into the sleeping bag there’s no way I’d be able to avoid touching you and you’d shriek. I’d laugh and you’d throw me out of the sleeping bag and probably the tent and I’d freeze and die and it would be devastating to us both.” Thaia settled a leg between Lexi’s and smiled when she discovered Lexi had endured as much repressed desire as she had. “I like this better.”

Then she remembered how little room was available for leverage.

As a test, Thaia leaned further onto the elbow she was using to brace herself and gained maybe a single centimeter of additional room. Even then, Lexi’s collarbone was the lowest her mouth could reach. Thaia extricated her hand and ran it down Lexi’s side, brushing the curve of one of those tits and… that was all. That was all she could reach.

Wedging her hand in there wouldn’t do shit because her own tits were in the way. While having Lexi’s sliding against hers was _highly_ enjoyable, there was something to be said for paying proper attention to your partner’s goddess-given gifts. And the lack of room meant she really couldn’t.

“You look annoyed,” said Lexi.

Thaia briefly gave into her scowl and then skimmed up Lexi’s flank again, fingertips catching only grazes of a pair of tits she wanted to fucking savor. _Lament_ came to mind. An elegy of tragically scorned tits. “I’m in mourning.”

“Dare I ask why?”

“I can’t play with your tits.”

Lexi laughed, shaking hard enough that Thaia felt the tremors in her own chest. “_That’s_ what’s bothering you?”

“I really like yours and would love to show you how much. And I can’t right now. I can't scoot down because I'm too fucking tall and I'd break my neck trying from here and trying to get my hand in there could end up in us suffocating because my own tits are in the way and there just isn’t room.”

“You aren’t the only one here who’s stymied,” Lexi said as she lightly drew a finger along Thaia’s jaw. “I wanted to admire your musculature in ways I haven’t before. Yet, we’re both forced to settle with what we _can_ reach.” Then her path shifted, sweeping down Thaia’s neck before brushing the outward curve of her breast.

Thaia’s arms trembled as a frisson of anticipation raced through her. Clearly, Lexi had no qualms against using her extensive knowledge of anatomy to her advantage and Thaia had scant few defenses against Lexi in the first place. A new heat coalesced at the juncture of her legs, joining the gathering blaze at the back of her neck and _fuck_ this was threatening to get out of control quickly. Thaia pressed their foreheads together, seeking to settle herself with a different kind of contact, but Lexi didn’t stay for long. Instead, Lexi sent her a smile so wicked that Thaia had to squeeze her eyes shut just to fucking breathe.

Then her eyes snapped right back open when Lexi’s hot tongue sampled the hollow of her throat. She exhaled roughly but it did nothing to prevent the shudder when Lexi’s questing fingers skimmed where Thaia ached to be touched. They circled and returned, but it was one ephemeral stroke after another and chasing only resulted in those fingers sliding away and an amused hum from Lexi. Thaia’s abs flexed and tensed as the electric sensation shifted toward agony enough that a plea for mercy nearly escaped.

Nearly, because Thaia wasn’t going to surrender that easily. Not when tendrils of black pooled in Lexi’s eyes. Not when tendrils of biotics swirled along Lexi’s skin just as Thaia’s were. Not when Lexi wasn’t the only person stuck in this small sleeping bag who knew her strengths and was building a working knowledge of her new partner’s weaknesses.

Galvanized, Thaia grabbed Lexi’s hand from the back of her neck and then pinned their joined hands against the floor next to Lexi’s head, just short of the opening of the sleeping bag. Eyes fluttering shut, Lexi’s hips tilted upward in the same motion as her chin. Thaia took further advantage of the opening and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to that bared neck before she said, “Now I get a turn to see what I can reach.”

Lexi’s answer was a muted moan and rocking hips and a restless hand scraping at Thaia’s abs.

A warning whorl of cold air seeped in, drifting over their hands. Thaia laughed softly into Lexi’s neck before she unleashed a comment worthy of a bad joke. “Apparently it’s not hot enough in here yet.”

“Then you’ve some work to—” Her sultry answer was bitten off by a sharp cry when Thaia nipped at a ridge on her neck at the same time that her searching fingertip finally reached where Lexi most desired her.

“I’ve what?” Thaia asked, placing another kiss on the underside of Lexi’s jaw, another on her chin, and then dragging her tongue up the lovely line leading right to that full lower lip. She could tease like this all night if Lexi kept writhing beneath her in ways she hadn’t imagined would become reality.

Except somehow Lexi was _still_ giving nearly as much as what she was getting, her free hand roaming and—somehow without touching any obvious erogenous zones—electrifying every single nerve Thaia possessed. But she wasn’t alone in the struggle. Lexi couldn’t even answer Thaia’s simple question, ragged breaths stealing whatever she might have said. Body taut, her hips twisted, as if seeking a little more. Almost there. _Almost_ because Thaia couldn’t get the right angle.

Not even when Lexi whispered for more when Thaia relinquished her lips. Asked for more again in the accent Thaia could never hear enough of no matter how much she heard it.

She wanted to give Lexi everything she wanted. Desperately, burning with it, but options were limited. Yet if they took the biotics option left remaining to them, possibilities and pleasure would feel endless. She brought their entwined hands closer to the side of Lexi’s head to murmur into her crest, “The only way I can give you more is with biotics and we have to meld for that and—”

“Then meld with me,” Lexi said in a low tone filled with barely restrained need.

Thaia pulled back enough to directly look at—_fuck_ Lexi’s eyes were enticing eddies of black and it was one of the hottest fucking things she’d ever seen. But this was a step to another level and, as desperately as she wanted them to explore the deepest depths of each other as one, she needed to hear clear consent before she accepted the invitation Lexi’s mind had extended. “You’re sure?”

“I want you to meld with me. I want—”

Thaia lunged forward, capturing her lips as she finished weaving their minds together.

—_you_,_ Lexi echoes in the meld, twining and spinning and falling, falling when Thaia thinks—Lexi thinks—she couldn’t fall any further but they are it’s nothing like she imagined but somehow all she hoped and waves of biotics merge between them, within them, and it’s fire, familiar and home and they fall into the welcoming singularity that sets every synapse alight in the eternity between breaths before it surges and they shatter._

A heart’s steady, reassuring beat. A hand loosely entwined with her own. The languorous intimacy in the late stages of a deep meld.

Then a fierce blast of wind slamming something into the derelict’s hull with a terrific crash that caused them both to jump snapped the meld and the calm within it.

“Fuck this planet,” Thaia said when they settled down again, her tits providing Lexi with a remarkably comfortable pillow and Thaia would’ve been lying if she’d said she wasn’t jealous. But the sleeping bag’s far-too-fucking-confining confines meant she wouldn’t be getting the best pillows tonight.

“It was your idea to come here,” Lexi said without moving her head. Not that Thaia could blame her.

“A cold-ass windstorm wasn’t in my plans. Or banging in this fucking derelict in this tiny-ass sleeping bag.”

Lexi’s smile pressed against Thaia’s skin. “Are you complaining?”

“That it happened? No. That it happened in this physical space? Possibly. I should’ve said something sooner. Someplace with a bed.” Her hand wandered to find Lexi’s again, but ended up gently tracing her bonding bracelet instead—reminding her why she’d held back for so long. “But I didn’t want to risk fucking up what we have and losing you from my life. You’re like a piece of my home that I didn’t realize existed until I knew you.”

Lexi lifted her head and studied Thaia with radiant eyes. “You sound like you’re talking about soulmates.”

“Yeah, but soulmates doesn’t apply unless the other person feels the same…” She trailed off when Lexi made the gesture for idiot and it took Thaia approximately one entire second to figure out why. And agree with Lexi’s rightfully negative assessment of her intellect. “_Oh_.”

“I know you didn’t ask for this.” Lexi briefly rested a finger on Thaia’s chin before running it along what she could reach of her jaw.

“Rosava, Ragna, and Arun did, technically,” Thaia said with a grin.

Lexi sighed. “You know what I mean. You didn’t ask with the expectation that it would be real. Not merely legal and binding, but a method of uncovering the truth of what binds us together. That wasn’t what you asked for.”

“No, but I should have. That would’ve been the smart thing to do. I mean I’ve been in your head and you’ve been in mine and that was really fun and we should do that again at the soonest possible opportunity because, like I said, it was fun, and also there’s this whole thing where I’m in love with you and if you _combine_ it with the whole we’ve been in a relationship without fucking knowing it for a while and—”

“Shut up or you’re going to make me regret being in love with you,” Lexi said, mixed with laughter.

“If you don’t regret it _yet_, you might not ever.” Then what Lexi said caught up to Thaia and she smiled her big dumb smile. “You’re in love with me! I mean I felt it in the meld plus the whole soulmates thing but you said it _out loud_ that you’re in love with me.”

“And _regretting_ it.”

“Doesn’t matter because you, Lexi T’Perro, are in love with me.”

After another aggrieved sigh, Lexi settled back down. “Go to sleep. I can’t take anymore of you being you tonight.”

The day had been another long as fuck day, so Thaia chose cooperation over being a shit. For the most part. Right before they were about to drop off, Thaia whispered, “You love me.”

“I do.”

“And I love you.”

“I know.”

“This trip is awe—”

“If you don’t shut up and go to sleep right this instant, I will be forced to murder you.” Her tone turned sharp as fuck. “And I won’t feel guilty about it. Good night.”

Thaia still smiled. “Good night.”


	8. Roadside Assistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts in this chapter:  
30\. “I’m with you, you know that.”  
31\. “Scared, me?”

**Aite, 2210.**

Morning brought an end to the windstorm and warmer temperatures. In Thaia’s opinion, huddled as far into her jacket as she could get while she checked the perimeter outside the medbay and CIC, it was still cold as fuck. But it wasn’t instant-frostbite cold. So, marginally better.

The geomagnetic storm hadn’t abated, however. Thaia wasn’t worried yet—they had supplies for at least two weeks and she hadn’t heard of a geomagnetic storm lasting more than a few days. Since she’d messaged her dad before they’d left Omega, if they didn’t show up on the Citadel in a couple days, people would come looking. It meant staying put instead of actively hiking out, but things could be worse for them.

For instance, worse would mean not having a whole derelict ship to explore.

Smiling, Thaia returned to the medbay to find Lexi had made herself comfortable in the cleared-out space next to the tent, sleeping bag wrapped around her, cup of tea in hand, new book in her lap. If not for the occasional groans of a stressed metal hull, the cheek-biting cold, and if the sleeping bag was replaced with a blanket, it was exactly how Lexi would be with a new book at home.

Also, another good option they had for passing the time was to continue exploring each other as bondmates thriving in unity as one.

Still smiling, she looked at Lexi again.

“No, I’m finishing this book,” Lexi said without taking her eyes off the book. “Don’t even try to be seductive. I got in some proper admiration earlier this morning, so it won’t work.”

She _had_. And Thaia had gotten the book for her to enjoy, which Lexi clearly was, so Thaia could keep herself occupied. With an entire derelict available, there was a chance she could find a salvageable eezo mini-power source around somewhere. Not only was Lexi interested in viewing potential data on those OSDs, Thaia had to admit to some curiosity, as well. And there was the simple challenge of rigging up a functioning reader itself that appealed.

“Far be it from me to interfere with your reading,” Thaia said, genuinely pleasant. “Perimeter’s clear. I’m going to go poke around in the CIC to see if I can find any power sources with some active eezo. I should be within shouting range the whole time.”

Lexi acknowledged her by lifting her cup. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

And with that, Thaia attached the toolkit to her belt and then ventured into the ruins of the CIC. The first few terminals went without incident aside from griping about the dust and grumbling over having forgotten to grab a bag for any salvaged components. When she ducked back into the medbay to fetch one, Lexi didn’t even look up, which only amused Thaia more. The book must be _really_ good and now Thaia even looked forward to reading it.

Then she went back to work. While carefully navigating through the maze of wreckage between terminals four and five, Thaia had to use her entire body as leverage to move a fallen strut. The strut had shifted maybe half a meter when an old bolt that’d rolled underneath snapped under the strut’s weight. A loud squawk followed by a flurry of angry wings came out from under a ledge near the overhead. Arms reeling, Thaia yelled and lunged out of the way. Halfway through the lunge, she whacked her knee on a console so hard that her vision went white. Then the bird had the fucking tits to dive-bomb her before it squawked again and flew into the corridor.

She supposed she should be grateful that the bird hadn’t shit on her.

“Are you all right?” Lexi called from the medbay.

Thaia rubbed at her sore knee. Might’ve hit the same spot as she had last night, but this time with enough force to bruise, judging by the burn. Nothing concerning, though. “Yeah.”

“And the bird?”

“Indignant.”

“Well, so long as everyone’s okay, I’m going back to my reading.”

Thaia laughed quietly to herself as she checked her jacket to make sure the bird hadn’t shit on _that_, either. Thankfully, it had not. She also still hadn’t cooled off from working up a sweat searching through the wreckage, so she left the jacket there on the upturned console.

Despite the grime and that one run-in with the fucking bird and the dust from the corroded overhead, a certain peacefulness permeated her entire being. This was so much better than running combat operations. Content as fuck, Thaia took a deep breath and—

Went straight into a sneezing fit.

Once it finally fucking stopped and she’d sacrificed part of her shirt to wipe her fucking nose, it occurred to her that the metals in the dust could be poisonous. So she shouted, “Hey, babe? How much dust from the hull would I have to inhale for it to be bad?”

“You should be _avoiding_ inhalation,” Lexi called back.

Thaia was pretty sure she wasn’t imagining the accusatory tone from Lexi. “Um, I think we’re past that because I sneezed ten times in a row before I stopped counting. I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”

Goddess, Lexi sighed so fucking loud that Thaia winced from three rooms over. “You aren’t in immediate danger. I’ll make a note for you to get a checkup when we get home.”

“Probably a good idea.” Then Thaia smiled because home was them together and acknowledging that it _was_ home. But she remembered that she’d be shipping back out after Tuchanka and potentially be gone for months and her smile waned. She didn’t want to be gone. She didn’t want to be doing commando work. She wanted to be doing work like this—well, not salvaging. Studying ships, designing her own ships. Building her own ships. Maybe a dreadnought. Or, fuck it, a mass relay.

She could be starting on that career and be able to live with Lexi all the time instead of only during her leaves. If she didn’t try to make it happen, she’d be dumber than she thought. So she would. Somehow. She’d have to send a message to Dr. Aridana, her former academic advisor at Armali, to see what the timeframe would be. She couldn’t do much more until comms came back, but it left her with an overabundance of optimism about her career that she hadn’t felt in years.

It took the rest of the morning dismantling her way through even more terminals before Thaia allowed herself to hope she might’ve found what she needed for the reader. Full bag slung over her shoulder and jacket tied around her waist, she carried the last armful of components into the medbay. Once there, she used biotics to gently place them on the deck, followed by her jacket and bag.

“Any luck?” asked Lexi, finally looking up from her book.

“Don’t know yet if—”

“What _happened_ to you?”

Thaia nudged some of the more questionable components aside to clear space to sit. “A bird and I had a disagreement?”

Lexi sat up from her slouch—which bode well for the quality of the book because reading a good book was the _only_ time Lexi T’Perro slouched—and set aside her cup. “I was talking about your clothes.”

“Did that fucking bird shit on me?” Thaia craned her neck to see her back. “I didn’t see any when I checked.”

“If it did, no one would be able to tell,” Lexi said, slightly amused. “Look at your front.”

Thaia did. Her shirt and pants were covered with whatever dust and grime and who the fuck knew what else you got on you during salvage operations. “These might be a complete loss. They’re just militia casuals, though. So it’s no big deal to replace them.”

Lexi frowned slightly. Then she marked her place in the book and set it next to her. “Do you own any clothing that isn’t for the militia or athletics? I haven’t seen any at the apartment or your family’s homes, but there’s always stasis storage to consider.”

“No, don’t think so. I haven’t needed any.” Thaia gingerly sat down, keeping as much weight off her knee as she could, and started arranging the salvage in order from most to least likely to have any working components. “You know, I didn’t consider that part about leaving the militia. Not only will I have to think about what to wear, but I’d have to get clothes that can be put together into actual outfits.”

“Have you decided what to do?” Lexi asked as she stashed the sleeping bag in the shelter and then sat down next to Thaia.

“Yeah, I’ll let Safira take me shopping and keep the frequency of my complaints to less than five per hour.” It would be a trial and a half, but she’d do it. She’d just make sure she let Safira get her enough items where she wouldn’t have to repeat the experience for at least fifty years. Maybe she could even get away with a century.

Lexi briefly pressed her fingers against her smiling lips before asking in an emotion-laden voice, “You’re leaving the militia?”

“Yes.” Relief took over completely, a warm feeling in Thaia’s chest that radiated through her arms and legs. Even in the bowels of a derelict ship, she was content. “I want to build things rather than permanently taking anything or any_one_ apart. There’s a lot I need to learn before I have the skills to build what I really want to—meaning graduate level studies. I’ll have contact my favorite professor and academic advisor I had at Armali to see if any of the invitations to continue my studies are still open, but that’s the quickest way to jump back in.” Then a chill that had nothing to do with the air temperature drifted in to smother Thaia’s happiness. Even after she left the militia, she might still be separated from Lexi. They hadn’t exactly planned anything out and if Thaia wanted to start on the next stage of her career sooner rather than later, the University of Armali was her best bet. “What about you? You were talking about clinical psych after you’re done at Huerta.”

Lexi’s own smile hadn’t faded. “I’d been talking it over with Harry before we left. Once we returned to the Citadel, I was going to start applying to programs.”

“Applying is more like a formality for you. I bet you can go wherever you want as long as there’s space.” Which was true. Unlike Thaia and her smattering of undergraduate degrees, Lexi had a long list of academic achievements. Her only real limitation would be if her applications didn’t coincide well with the schedules for any school’s academic year.

Lexi momentarily placed a hand on Thaia’s knee. “I’m with _you_, you know that. I want to keep it that way. Armali has plenty of options for universities, so we needn’t be separated.”

“And,” Thaia said, drawing out the word, “the house in Armali has a lot of room. There’s the house on the bay, too, but that’d be a long commute.” Goddess, she couldn’t stop fucking smiling. “What do you think about getting an etalis?”

“I’ve…” Lexi paused, fidgeting with her bracelet. “I’ve never had a pet.”

Thaia gasped. “Never?”

“Omega! Then medical school and residencies. I was too busy to maintain relationships, much less a relationship plus a pet.”

“You weren’t too busy for a relationship.” The lack of understanding Lexi had gotten from her exes would never cease to astonish Thaia. Or piss her off because they hadn’t appreciated Lexi for who she was and had somehow managed to make Lexi feel like it was _her_ fault. Like something was inherently wrong with her when there fucking wasn’t. “Your exes just sucked.”

Lexi stilled and then looked at her with eyes that should never have been that torn with uncertainty. “Thaia, they—”

“They _did_. Instead of seeing _you_, they held an idea of you in their head and got upset when the real you didn’t act like they thought you should. Then they wanted you to change to match their imaginary ideal and blamed you when you couldn’t and somehow you still feel like it’s your fault when it _wasn’t_. It never was.” Thaia leaned forward and framed Lexi’s face with her hands. “You are who you are and if someone doesn’t love you for it, that’s on _them._ Your exes were the worst and you deserved better and that’s a fact and I will die on this hill.”

At first, Lexi said nothing, searching Thaia’s eyes with her own instead. Her hand covered Thaia’s, gripping it tightly and holding it there, like an anchor. “You really mean it, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I’ll fight them if I have to. Maybe not all at once because I don’t have a death wish but they should understand that nothing’s wrong with you and they’re shit people to have made you believe that even for an instant.”

A smile breaking through the shadows her exes always brought to her eyes, Lexi tugged her close enough for a gentle kiss before resting their foreheads together. “Thank you.”

Then a rumble from overhead rattled the hull and they both leapt to their feet. Well, Lexi leapt while Thaia attempted but pain lanced through her knee halfway up and she more lurched upright than anything else.

“That was a shuttle,” she said, grabbing an upended exam bed before she fell over. “Standard fusion torch thrusters. Could be anyone but we should be ready for an unwelcoming party.” She pivoted on the wrong knee and faltered when she took a step toward the exit. Shit.

“Are you limping?” asked Lexi.

Thaia checked that her sidearm was still there. The pain in her knee was more a dull throb than stabbing. She’d lasted through games and live combat with worse. “I’m fine.”

“That wasn’t an answer to my question.”

“I just need to warm it up.” Thaia shook out her leg for effect. “See? It’s fine.”

“Not if you’re limping on it, it isn’t. If there _are_ mercenaries out there, are you even going to be able to fight?”

“Babe, one time in skyball I had a bruise wrapped almost completely around my lower leg from knee to ankle and I still played through the rest of the game. And that was when I was just a kid.”

Lexi sighed and handed Thaia her jacket. “So you’re an idiot is what you’re saying.”

“Yes, but I’m _your_ idiot.”

Then someone said from behind them in a reasonable, measured voice: “Your _coach_ was an idiot and should have pulled you. He and I had words after I learned about the extent of your injury. Had I an inkling during the game, I would have gone down and insisted you be removed.”

Thaia dropped her jacket and spun because that sounded like her _mother_ and that was impossible and she really hoped this hadn’t all been a fucking dream because she’d have to do this all over again with Actual Lexi if that was true.

She finished turning.

It was her mother.

_Fuck_.

Matriarch Indah Kallistrate, who was presumably running workshops on Tuchanka, was instead dressed in dark, combat-ready clothing with boots to match while she was perfunctorily taking down the emergency shelter. Like it was a perfectly normal thing and a perfectly normal conversation to be having except Indah hadn’t made a _fucking sound_ and—

“What the fuck?” said Thaia.

“You would think that at least one of my children would believe that extensive use of cursing is a crutch. You would be wrong. Zero out of four.” Indah finished rolling up the rainfly and then walked over to them, extending her hands to Lexi. “But now I have a daughter-in-law who swears sparingly and with purpose when she does. It’s yet another thing to be appreciated about you.” Then she turned her traditional greeting into a hug, which Lexi accepted and returned.

Thaia couldn’t help the dumb grin that appeared on her face even though she’d already known that her mother really liked Lexi but now Lexi was her bondmate and family and it was even more important that they all accepted her.

Also she kind of wanted a hug, too. Yet, even though her mother and Lexi had separated, Indah hadn’t made any motions to give Thaia one. “Hey, where’s mine?”

“Have you seen yourself?” asked Indah. “You’re filthy. You can have a hug after you’ve bathed and changed your clothes.”

Thaia scowled. “Love you, too.”

“Waterbug, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

Lexi laughed.

Given that Thaia had laughed so hard she’d almost cried when Soraya had used her nickname for Lexi, Thaia let the laughter pass. “Why are you here?” she asked her mother. “_How_ are you here? Wait, no, don’t answer the second one. Something something you haven’t let your skills rust even though you haven’t been an active commando for centuries and you can still sneak up on each of your daughters and we should never forget it.”

“Your father was worried,” said Indah, a smile at the edges of her mouth.

“Is she still worried?” Heat reached Thaia’s cheeks, hopefully still looking like a flush of exertion from her work in the CIC earlier. But it was so easy to forget how anxious her dad could get when Sula’s brash nature hid it so well.

“Less worried and more discomposed.” Unlike her bondmate, Indah was the picture of composure, as she normally was. Though Thaia did know that her mother worried, too. But Indah had the remarkable ability to freak out later, long after the worrisome incident was over.

Fuck. Discomposed meant almost peak Sula worry and Thaia’s cheeks burned a little more. “She’s shouty, isn’t she?”

“I suspect so. We spoke with Soraya on the way here and I fear that may have been a mistake, given the sheer extent of the danger you unwittingly walked into.” Indah gripped Thaia by the shoulders and assessed her for injuries before she searched her eyes. “But you’ve ambled out largely unscathed, proving yourself yet again to be one of Elen’s chosen while simultaneously tormenting your father.” She sighed, tenderly swiped a thumb across Thaia’s forehead, and then held it up for Thaia to see. “You truly are filthy. Did you stumble across a dune of dust and dive in?”

“_No_. I was salvaging those OSDs.” She went to point at them but the case they were in was gone. Because Indah had already packed it. And Indah had already let go of Thaia and strolled over and resumed taking down the main part of the shelter. “The ones in a case you already put away. How long were you here before we saw you?”

“Long enough.” Indah unsealed the shelter and poked her head inside. “So you had only the one sleeping bag for the night you were stranded here?” She exited and began efficiently collapsing the integrated poles. “The weather report did mention dangerous overnight lows worsened by a record windchill for this region. Even if you had two in your possession, you would have needed to share one last night along with utilizing your medical knowledge and survival training.” As she folded up the flattened shelter, a deliberate look was delivered to Lexi and Thaia in turn.

It was then that Thaia realized something she did not want to.

Her mother knew.

Not only did her mother _know_, but there was another aspect of her mother’s knowledge possibly more troubling.

Matriarch Indah, poet and literature professor of centuries, knew narrative techniques like turians knew calibration techniques—thoroughly, and with a suspect amount of enthusiasm.

Indah tucked the neatly folded shelter into Thaia’s open pack as she went on. “Sharing body heat, most efficiently accomplished for asari through being nude and front-to-front, and of course in the single sleeping bag. Superb circumstances for a honeymoon.” Fists on her hips, she surveyed the room. “I hope you made the most of it.”

“Mother, _no_.” The idea of looking at Indah unbearable, Thaia bent down and picked her jacket up off the floor.

“No? That’s too bad. They were perfect conditions.” Indah possibly sounded genuinely remorseful, but Thaia sure as fuck wasn’t going to look at her to confirm it. “Well, if you would like a second chance to make the most of it, we could leave you here another night.”

“Please don’t,” Thaia said as she shook off her jacket and shrugged it on. “There isn’t enough room in that sleeping bag for decent exploration and I’m not purposefully going to subject us to that for another night.” Then what she’d admitted caught up to her and she slowly looked over at her mother.

Who was smiling. At her. And then Lexi. Eyes twinkling.

Thaia had been matriarched in less than one minute.

How the fuck.

“Then I suppose we’ll have to make alternate arrangements,” Indah said, attention once again on packing. “Perhaps a night or two at a Presidium hotel. A room with one bed, of course, but one with an overabundance of space to resume explorations that were tragically impossible to conduct properly in the strict confines you were relegated to last night.”

“What?” said Thaia. “No, you—”

“Yes, that would be lovely, thank you,” said Lexi.

Thaia began to see Sula’s point about Lexi being the polite one.

“Good! I’ll make arrangements once we’ve exited Aite’s magnetosphere.”

Once her parents decided on helping someone, there wasn’t much you could do to argue, so Thaia let it drop. But now she was reminded that only one parent had entered the derelict. “So is Dad coming in here?”

“Last we spoke, she thought it best she wait outside.”

Thaia glanced at the door. Sula always took time to calm herself whenever Thaia—and, on rare occasions, one or more of her sisters—scared the shit out of her. That way she wouldn’t yell, she’d explained a long time ago after Thaia had asked. However, even once she’d calmed down, she’d still speak with the full force of her hurt and disappointment behind it.

“You look scared,” said Lexi.

Thaia gave her a lopsided smile. “Scared, me? Not unless there’s a spider around that no one’s told me about.” She wasn’t scared, though. Like Indah, Sula wasn’t someone who would ever hurt her. Thaia just dreaded having the consequences of her risk-taking spoken out loud.

“Apprehensive, then.”

“I am.” Thaia turned her smile into an expression resembling pitiful. “Hold me.”

Unmoved, Lexi stepped past her and began to assistant Indah in picking up the campsite. “Thaia, she’s your father. She loves you. She wouldn’t be this worked up if she didn’t.”

“Babe, I don’t think you realize how serious she was about keeping you instead of me if we split up.”

“Then I suppose,” Lexi said with a warm smile sent Thaia’s way, “we’ll have to make sure we don’t.”

Thaia returned the smile. Like a dumbass, she knew, but whatever. She was in love with Lexi and Lexi loved her back and they were bondmates and it was awesome.

“We would keep both of you,” said Indah. “Family gatherings may become awkward, but Thaia is familiar with navigating awkward occasions. It wouldn’t be too terribly different from before.” Before anyone could respond, Indah moved on, picking Lexi’s book up from the floor.

Lexi motioned for it. “Here, I’ll put it away. I plan on continuing it in the shuttle.”

“How is it?” Indah zipped up Thaia’s pack. “I received my copy right before the conference and haven’t had time to look at it yet.”

Thaia’s shock trampled over Lexi’s forming answer. “_You_ get the ARCs?”

Gracefully straightening, Indah said, “I’m sent many ARCs for review.”

“But you get the ARCs for that specific series and you never told me?”

“Why would I?” Indah handed Thaia her pack. “All I’ve ever heard from you have been complaints about two of the characters. Kallias and Laena, I believe?”

Thaia swung her pack onto her back and checked the room one last time for anything they might’ve left behind. “Because they’re in love and they won’t tell each other because reasons. But they’re all shit reasons.”

“If they dared to speak their hearts, they would find happiness dwelling within their mingled souls.”

“You could just say they should use their words,” said Thaia.

Indah nodded and then patted her gently on the cheek as she walked by. “Waterbug, use your words.”

“Wait, what?” asked Thaia.

“She did,” said Lexi, following Indah out the door. “Clumsily, but she got the point across.”

“Her outsized heart manages where her words can’t,” said Indah.

Thaia grumbled and brought up the rear. “It’s like you’re speaking another fucking language.”

Then Indah again asked Lexi about her impressions of the book thus far. Thaia got the message and didn’t interrupt this time—not even to complain—and paid for it with her mother and Lexi discussing both the new book and the entire series for every second of their walk through the derelict. Every. Second.

When they finally stepped outside into fresh, crisp air, Sula was right there. Staring. Arms crossed over her dark, heavy jacket and staring. She stared at Thaia and Thaia stared back for a long, unbearable moment.

Then Sula finally said in a flinty voice, “All right, into the shuttle.”

Thaia reassessed her dad’s expression and decided she could hike to what passed for civilization on Aite. “I can find my way back.”

“Let me put this another way: either you get in or I will make you.”

Thaia glanced around to see if there was a route of escape. She was perfectly capable of eventually reaching Adrasteia on her own, but she’d have to get past her parents first.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Sula pointed first at her and then the shuttle. “I will literally truss you up with biotics and throw you in.”

“Sula,” Indah said, just this side of neutrally.

Sula looked at Indah and then back to Thaia. “Fine. Because I’m feeling generous, I’ll place you gently inside the shuttle. Still trussed up.”

If determined, either of her parents could do exactly that, which could become an actual possibility if she took off. Time to cut her losses and cooperate. “Fine.” She aggressively adjusted her pack and stalked toward the sleek, silver-hued shuttle bearing the Calfuray Systems logo.

The interior was arranged like almost all the shuttles for the family firm: pilot and co-pilot seats up front, a hatch between the cockpit and the main cabin that was usually kept open, three lines of seating suitable for most species—for trips with species who couldn’t use the seats safely, there were modifications that could be made pre-trip—and then a separate cargo area in the back that had its own external hatch for loading and unloading. The only current cargo was a standard complement of survey equipment, Thaia noted as she secured her pack and then Lexi’s right after, so they likely hadn’t interfered with a job. However, apparently Thaia had taken too long grabbing a datapad and Sula unequivocally let her know.

“You don’t get in a seat and buckle the fuck up, I’m going to start thinking you’re considering making a run for it again,” Sula said loudly and pointedly over her shoulder after Indah initiated the warmup sequence.

“This is bullshit,” Thaia declared as she threw first her datapad and then herself into a seat in the row directly behind the cockpit.

Sula scoffed. “Did you forget the part where we had to rescue your ass?”

“You didn’t _have_ to.”

“Wasn’t your plan to call someone from your family once the storm passed?” asked Lexi, already settled comfortably in the seat next to Thaia.

“Yes. But not my father because”—Thaia pitched her voice louder as Indah lifted off and the shuttle rumbled through the sky—“she doesn’t react well to shit like this.”

“You mean when you pull a stupid stunt that could have gotten you and Lexi killed?” Having cleared atmo, Sula unbuckled and turned to glare at her. “No, I don’t.”

Point proven, Thaia gestured at Sula.

Which didn’t help and Sula rightfully launched into a rant.

“There is a _reason_ why you always stayed the youngest. This. This shit is why. You’re worse than your three sisters combined and you have been since you took your first step because it was followed by your second and third and you sprinted your naked little ass into the water before anyone realized you could fucking walk much less run. You were a little blue ball of energy who kept forgetting you couldn’t literally run through or over obstacles or kept forgetting that obstacles existed until you literally ran into them. Things like rocks, trees, that one time when you ran smack into an oar that was leaned up against the boathouse and then went running straight off the end of the dock, or that time you jumped from the boat and right into a poor manta that’d decided to leap out to catch some sun and caught your crest instead and you were both highly confused and we had to rescue you _and_ the manta. Over three centuries later and we’re _still_ rescuing you from dumb shit and when you have kids I hope they’re just like you. Then you’ll fucking understand.”

“You would only worry more,” Indah said without looking up from the nav panel, but still resting a reassuring hand on Sula’s shoulder.

Sula sighed and placed her hand over Indah’s. “Look, kid. Parenting you isn’t for the faint of heart and a heart can only take so much. Just please try a little harder to not be so… zealously adventurous. I’m not getting any younger.” Then, when Indah—two centuries older than Sula—fired a glare in her direction, Sula amended her statement. “Neither is your mother, but she handles your shit with fucking _aplomb_.”

The shuttle’s overheard lighting reflected off her parents’ bracelets and warmth pervaded Thaia’s being so much that she couldn’t stop the little smile. She couldn’t be expected to. Not when she had a bracelet that gave her the same feeling when she looked at the person who wore its match. Shit, her stomach still fluttered when she looked at Lexi. Her best friend and bondmate and she did fucking know how lucky she was.

“The fuck are you smiling at?” asked Sula, but it wasn’t derisive. If anything, she was amused.

“Nothing,” said Thaia. “I’ll try to be more thoughtful, all right? I didn’t mean to worry you. For pretty much all those moments where I did worry you and will probably worry you again in the future.”

“I appreciate it, but what’s with the sappy smile you’re wearing right now? That’s not nothing. That’s a whole lot of something.”

Thaia glanced at Lexi again, who had yet to open her book and was giving Thaia a curious look. Wanting to answer, Thaia opened her mouth but there was nothing. She couldn’t find the right words.

After locking in the autopilot, Indah turned around. “She looks at Lexi like she looks at the bay. Tranquility in a tempest passed; refuge between storms and stillness; a reflection of home and heart.” Then she continued without significant pause, as if it was perfectly normal to be that poetic in a regular conversation. “Now, for me, here is the most puzzling element of this entire caper of yours: why didn’t you just give Lexi the access codes to the shuttle?”

The shift in subject from heavy but happy to something lighter—despite involving Nef—allowed Thaia to relax into her seat. “Because Nef had them locked to my identity and I can’t hack through Nef’s code.”

“Nef gets shadier every time someone brings her up,” said Sula. “We might need to have a talk with Meir, four hundred years old or not.”

Indah nodded. “I agree, but we can speak with her on the Citadel.” Then she looked at Thaia and Lexi again. “Now, that was my one question. My one qualm is that I wasn’t there for your bonding ceremony. Neither was anyone else from families on both sides. This is my hope for the future: that you will invite everyone to the renewal.”

Thaia crossed her arms, extended her legs, and then crossed those too for good measure. “Not Meir.”

“I suspect before then that your sister will have returned your good graces.”

Sula shot Indah an incredulous look. “Don’t be so sure. Remember when Eirian refused to speak to her or Meir for a solid decade after the art museum incident?”

Like any other time the incident was brought up, Thaia laughed. Full on, threatening to double her over laughter. Goddess, Eirian’s indignant, then scandalized, then fully outraged faces had been the best they’d ever gotten from her.

“Thanks for helping me make my point, kid,” said Sula.

Book in her lap, Lexi looked between Sula and Thaia. “Do I want to know?”

“Could go either way,” said Sula. “The story involves someone—and I’m not naming names—announcing that she’d fuck the trapezoid but only if it’s tangential because she has standards. Ask for details at your own peril.”

“I think I’ll let that one be for now.” Then Lexi opened her book and began reading.

Thaia laughed even harder.

Soon enough, everyone settled in for the hours-long return trip to the Citadel, passing the time by reading, napping, and at one point Thaia ransacked the supplies in the cargo area for something to eat because she’d gone zero for three in the decent emergency meal department and did _not_ want to make it zero for four.

The only thing she could find was another emergency kit and she wasn’t going to open it because she didn’t like what was in the current emergency kit. But she planned on ordering all kinds of food via room service once they were in that fancy Presidium hotel. It wouldn’t cost nearly as much as a new emergency supply kit and the food would be far better.

It wasn’t until they’d exited the Citadel’s flight traffic pattern, docked, and were unloading from the shuttle that Thaia’s excitement about the break on the Citadel dimmed. Getting through C-Sec’s checkpoint could take fucking _hours_ and if she was somewhat hungry now, she’d be starving by the time they got through. That meant she might have to take another gamble on the emergency meals.

“Is something wrong?” asked Lexi, putting on her pack after Indah passed it to her.

Thaia glared in the direction of the nearest checkpoint. “C-Sec.”

“Don’t worry, we arranged for you to clear the checkpoint quickly so long as we’re with you. Perks of a pair of matriarchs doing the negotiating,” Sula said as she secured the shuttle behind them. “It also helped that two of the five people we ended up talking to are fans of your mother’s work.”

“Goddess, they’re everywhere. Even the Blood Pack’s fucking CEO is a fan,” Thaia said, somehow managing not to sound cranky about it. “It’s partly why they just took back the shuttle on Aite instead of killing us and _then_ taking the shuttle.”

“I do have a Ganar signed up for my next workshop,” said Indah.

Thaia sighed. “Of course you do.”

Sula took her by the shoulders and directed her toward the checkpoint. “Cheer up. You’re less than an hour from resuming your honeymoon. And by that I mean resuming your banging.”

“How did—”

“Matriarch,” said Sula.

Because having matriarchs for parents was to her advantage in her immediate future, Thaia kept her complaints about how they knew too much too easily to herself.

In fact, she practically skipped through the checkpoint, her lone disappointment in the ease of the process that Carlson wasn’t there and she couldn’t gloat in his face about it.

When they emerged on the other side of the checkpoint, Thaia caught sight of the familiar faces of _her entire fucking squad_ waiting for them.

Fuck. At this rate, they were never going to get to the fucking hotel.

“Did you tell them?” Thaia asked Sula.

Sula drew back in mostly mock offense. “Why the fuck would _I_ tell them?”

“My guess is Meir,” said Indah. “But I believe you and I can distract them long enough for Thaia and Lexi to escape. Consider it another gift.” Then she swept toward the crowd of commandos as only someone a thousand years old could do.

“Go!” Sula said before she joined Indah.

Thaia grabbed Lexi’s hand and they ran for it, sprinting past a bewildered C-Sec officer who didn’t object until they were almost out of shouting range, past a droning hanar proselytizer, a clump of humans, nearly bounced off a pair of krogan arguing about fish in the Presidium Lake, and then threaded through a crowd of numerous species gathered to watch a live broadcast from Council Chambers—something to do with humans, Thaia guessed after a few glimpses.

“You think they’ll be looking for us?” Lexi asked after Thaia slowed them to a stop close to a few alleys between some stores and residential housing.

Thaia looked behind them. “Possibly? Depends on how determined they are.” Then she grinned at Lexi. “Oh! Do we need to go hide in another alcove and make out so they don’t notice us?”

“I might just kiss you,” Lexi said as she pulled Thaia into the nearest alley.

Thaia followed, vowing not to fucking squeak this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all 31 prompts from Fictober, but there's still an epilogue left to go.


	9. Epilogue

**Chalkhos, 2211.**

Dodging the human’s fist was easy enough. So easy that Thaia answered the omni call at the same time, which she probably would’ve done either way because the caller was Lexi.

Thaia hadn’t been able to talk to her in forty-nine days. Not that she’d been counting. The fact that she knew the exact number was entirely coincidental because she’d had to write dated daily reports. For forty-nine straight days. She’d finished her last report that morning, marking the successful conclusion of Operation Sink the Pirate Slavers Pretending to be Scientists and the resumption of her squad’s comms with the rest of the galaxy.

Now, twelve hours later and yet still the same morning, Lucen’s Guides had gathered in a local bar to celebrate. It was the same morning because the days on Chalkhos ran three times longer than a standard galactic day. So while her squad had been gone for forty-nine Chalkhos days, they had been gone for one hundred and twenty-one galactic days. Over five fucking _months_ and they’d been radio silent the entire fucking time because there was no fucking way they were risking the pirates getting away.

And they most definitely had not gotten away.

An outcome that was worthy of drinks and a bar fight with the mercenaries who’d been hired to run security for the colony once the commandos left. A decent group with a nice mix of krogan, humans, and asari, most of whom were fun bar fighters.

“You’re answering a _call_?” asked the human whose fist she’d just dodged. “That’s downright insulting.” Then he pulled his fist back for another hit because the hint had gone right the fuck over his head.

“People might take you seriously if you stop announcing your punches like you are right now,” Thaia told him as he swung again. And she dodged again. The human stumbled far enough away that he stopped posing an immediate threat. Good enough. “Toss a feint in there or something. Goddess.”

“Dash!” yelled Kiana. “Stop giving your opponents pointers!”

“It isn’t like they’ll use them!” Thaia shouted back, but then the call on her omni finished connecting and Lexi’s face appeared on the display. The lighting must’ve been weird in their living room because it made Lexi look like she had freckles. Maybe the model Destiny Ascension’s accent lighting had failed while she was away. Whatever, didn’t matter, not when she could finally talk to Lexi and that had Thaia grinning the biggest, dumbest grin she’d grinned in months. “Hey, babe!”

“Hey, Lexi!” everyone from Thaia’s squad chorused despite being engaged in their own fistfights.

Then Thaia noticed how serious Lexi looked. Almost grim. She wondered if this was how Lexi looked when she had to give patients bad news.

Oh, fuck.

“Is someone dying?” Thaia asked, words all jammed together.

“We need to talk,” Lexi said in a tone that matched her grim expression and oh _fuck_ because Lexi hadn’t said _no, no one’s dying, don’t be ridiculous_, which she’d said to Thaia on a multiple occasions when Thaia knew she was being ridiculous but sometimes she just worried.

Someone could be sick. Or dying. Or both. Lexi could have some incurable disease and they’d barely been bonded for five months and that wasn’t anywhere near long enough. Lexi was supposed to go with her to watch Litae hit Aite in two centuries. Even two centuries wasn’t long enough with your soulmate and Thaia might need to take this shit up with Piares.

“Somebody’s in trouble!” the human mock-sang as he lurched to his feet.

“Are you in another bar fight?” asked Lexi, tilting her head and maybe not quite as grim she’d initially appeared.

She sounded a lot like the last time Thaia had answered a call while out celebrating with her squad and the end result of that call had been _awesome_ so maybe there was a slight chance that no one was sick or dying. Only a slight chance, though. Worry still squeezed her lungs in its fist. “Calling it a fight would be an insult to fights.” Then the human shuffled within range and ran straight at Thaia. Rolling her eyes, she flung the human over her shoulder before returning to Lexi. “What did we need to talk about? _Am_ I in trouble? Is someone dying? Is Harry okay? Are _you_ dy—”

Lexi sighed. “I’m pregnant.”

“Wha—” Thaia got out before a krogan slammed into her and sent her flying, jaw hitting a metal chair before she bounced off a table and landed on the dirty, scuffed epoxy floor.

Her head might’ve been ringing a little bit and her jaw felt like someone had punched it with a hammer. She sat up, prodded at it, and flinched. Okay, maybe she’d been punched with an axe because it felt like a good-sized cut. One that was bleeding a fair amount, judging by the violet blood on her fingers and—shit, some might’ve dripped onto her pants. Her vision was a little blurry so it was hard to tell. Been a while since she’d taken a headbutt that hard without a helmet on and this was a great fucking reminder why she always wore helmets if headbutts were going to be had.

“Need some help?” a male krogan—the same one who’d just knocked her on her ass—asked from above. He held out a hand, which Thaia took because she was kind of woozy and also krogan weren’t ones for sucker punches. Especially when it was clear they’d already won. Which he had. Resoundingly. “You took that hit better than most!” he told her once she was on her feet. “And congrats on the kid!”

“_What_?!” came a new, louder chorus from Thaia’s squadmates, who were, from what Thaia could tell, were still engaged in their skirmishes.

She checked behind her to make sure the fighting was dying down. Then she got too dizzy and had to face forward again.

“Yeah!” the krogan shouted at the commandos. “I heard the news from her bondmate, too!”

So Thaia _hadn’t_ imagined that part. She blinked slowly a few times and then turned to Lexi, who was still on the omni call. “What? You’re—_really_? Wait, who was it?”

Lexi stared at her for a split-second before saying, “Thaia.”

It was her name, but it’d sounded an awful lot like _you absolute idiot_. Which was fair because Lexi hadn’t slept with anyone for a couple whole-ass decades before they’d slept together several times a tragic five fucking months ago so… “Oh! _Oh!_ Oh, fuck me, I’m going to be—we’re having a _kid_.” Thaia couldn’t tell if she was dazed because she’d just been decked or because Lexi had just told her they were going to be parents.

Oh _fuck_.

The krogan put a strong hand on her shoulder. Probably to make sure she didn’t tip over. Which, fair. Her balance was questionable at best.

So she turned her head slowly when she went to thank him. “You’re all—”

“Thaia!” said Lexi, pitched loud and strained with worry. “Goddess, your _jaw_! Where’s Ovadia?”

“Here!” Medkit in hand, Ovadia vaulted over a table to land in front of Thaia. Then she righted a nearby chair—not the same one that’d caused the injury—and practically shoved Thaia into it while also finding the breath to scold the krogan. “You could’ve killed her hitting her like that when she was distracted!”

“Hey! She wasn’t distracted when I started the charge! I’m not gonna kill someone in a friendly fight. Not sporting. More fun when they can get back up and keep things going.”

“How hard was the hit?” Lexi asked.

The krogan raised his free hand. “Not full speed if that’s what you’re thinking. Pulled back best I could after I heard what you said. Don’t want to scramble the brains of a new father.”

Thaia stilled. He meant _her_. “Did you hear that?” she whispered to Ovadia while Ovadia tried to press some gauze against the cut on her jaw.

“Yes, but I you need to stop talking so I can stop the bleeding.”

Maybe it was unexpected and daunting but she was excited. Or dazed. Maybe both. Probably both. Feeling all light and shit and maybe she could take on the whole bar. Wait, no. The krogan had taken her out like a warlord would a pyjak. Plus fighting didn’t seem like a responsible thing for a parent to do. Oh _fuck_. She and responsibility had never been close and that’s what parents were supposed to be.

“Wait!” Thaia threw out an arm for emphasis and her head swam. “Does this mean I have to be responsible?”

“It means you need to stop talking,” Ovadia said through gritted teeth. Then she tilted Thaia’s head upward and scowled something fierce. “That chair gouged out a chunk of flesh from your jaw.”

“Ugh.” Wondering if that piece should be sewn back, Thaia attempted to look around for it, gross as it would be to find. Or touch.

“Goddess, stay _still_.” She motioned to someone behind Thaia. “We’ve got to be careful even with the initial medigel patch if we want a chance to prevent scarring.”

“Please,” said Lexi, who sounded less worried. Not all the way to not worried but better than before.

Thaia smiled at her because she finally _could_. And Lexi had given her some good news even though it was surprising as fuck.

Ovadia scowled again. “No, stop being happy. It’ll mess up our chances to keep this from scarring. It’s bad.”

“How the fuck can I not be happy? Lexi’s right there! Well, she’s right there on the comm. We’re going to have a kid and do you realize how awesome that is? Because it is. Goddess, I hope she’ll be as smart as Lexi and maybe she’ll have Lexi’s eyes, too, and—”

When Thaia tried to look at Lexi again, a pair of hands held her head fast. “Dash, the captain’s going to order you to stay still if you keep going on like this,” came the voice of Shirin from behind her. Then she shifted one hand to hold the gauze on Thaia’s cut so that Ovadia could use both her own hands to fetch the supplies she needed.

The gauze must’ve had numbing medigel in it because Thaia knew she should be feeling the cut by now and wasn’t. Not that she was complaining. “Did you hear?” Thaia said to Shirin.

“Everyone’s heard at this point!” Kiana said from somewhere nearby. “And we’re fucking thrilled but you really should sit still. That might be the worst cut I’ve seen you get.” There was a pause and then: “Lexi! We’re happy for you, really! Don’t worry, we’ll get her back to you in one piece. Ovadia’s a good medic.”

“Personally, I can’t believe Dash is conscious after that hit,” said Nawra.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I eased up,” said the krogan.

Ovadia, penlight out, checked Thaia’s pupillary response. Whatever result she got didn’t help her mood. “I think she might have a minor concussion.” The light went away but Ovadia’s frown didn’t. “We should get you seen by a doctor as soon as possible. Unless this is treated with sophisticated equipment we don’t have here, it’s going to scar and we’re trying to _prevent_ that.”

“What?” said the krogan, arms going into the air before he shoved his way to stand directly in front of Thaia and within Lexi’s field of view. “Why would you want to do that? This news calls for celebration and _keeping_ a scar of good fortune to mark the occasion!”

“Good fortune!” Thaia said, sweeping an arm toward the krogan. “He says—” she stopped and looked at the krogan again. “What’s your name?”

“Just use my callsign, Urhe.”

Krogan callsigns were some of Thaia’s favorites. They usually had even better backstories than commando ones. “What’s it mean?”

He chuckled. “It’s the sound most people make when they find out I’m a shaman.”

Thaia stared. She also tried to say something, but mostly it was a gurgle.

“Yeah, like that,” said Urhe, laughing louder.

A fucking shaman! This could work to her favor because Lexi had written her longest thesis about krogan. She turned to Lexi. “Babe, you can’t argue with a shaman.” But she had to think it over again because this was Lexi and Thaia had witnessed Lexi out-stubborn Sula a few times. Once, she’d even out-stubborned Indah, which Thaia had witnessed only twice before in her entire life and both times it’d been Thaia’s paternal grandfather. “Okay, you _can_ argue with a shaman but Uncle Khel says you really shouldn’t if you know what’s good for you. And maybe I’m not great at knowing or doing what’s good for me, but _you_ are. So you can’t argue with a shaman and this shaman says I should let this scar because something something good luck.”

“Good _fortune_.” Urhe leaned close enough that Thaia could identify what kind of green his irises were—a dead-on match for the moss that’d been covering most of the derelict on Aite. That had to be good fortune, too. Then her thoughts stopped wandering because he leaned even closer and looked her right in the eyes. “I think I might’ve scrambled her brains a little. Still, if a shaman gives you a scar-worthy injury in the course of a good, fair fight, that’s fortune. Heal those brains back to where they were before, but let her jaw scar. It’ll look good.”

Lips pressed in a straight line, Lexi rested her chin on her hand.

“Shaman,” said Thaia.

Lexi ever-so-briefly bit her lip. “If there isn’t any underlying damage, such as damage to the bone or nerves, then I’ll withhold any objections. It isn’t my work that will be called into question. And,” she said, inclining her head toward Urhe, “I’ve enough wisdom to know that one shouldn’t argue with a shaman.”

Thaia smiled up at Urhe, earning another scowl from Ovadia, but she’d apologize later because this was more important. “See? Lexi’s really fucking smart. I hope our kid gets that from her because—”

Rosava stepped in between Thaia and Urhe, but she addressed Lexi instead of either of them. “I give you my heartfelt congratulations and I also apologize for the current circumstances. Fortunately, the Cybaen will have us back on the Citadel by tomorrow morning and then you can fuss over your bondmate properly instead of over a comm. For now, we’ll be getting her to the Cybaen’s medical facilities. I’ll message you once she’s mended.” Then Rosava gestured to Shirin and they lifted Thaia to her feet. When Rosava made eye contact, she told Thaia, “Say goodbye to your bondmate for now.”

Thaia grinned. It was still thrilling to hear someone refer to Lexi that way and for it to be true on every level possible. “I love you, babe! See you soon!”

**The Cybaen, 2211.**

It took three different doctors on the Cybaen speaking to Urhe via comms to find one who agreed with his recommendation to allow Thaia’s injury to scar. Thaia was only tangentially involved with the negotiations because Dr. Kartikeya—the one who ultimately agreed—was actively treating her concussion and didn’t put up with a single iota of Thaia’s shit. Which meant Thaia was uncharacteristically quiet, but when the doctor was a matriarch, you didn’t fuck around because they sure as fuck weren’t. That and Dr. Kartikeya had informed Thaia that if she didn’t follow instructions, her jaw laceration would be healed up to look like nothing had ever happened to it at all.

Thaia cooperated.

Also, once the doctor had finished treating her concussion, her mind cleared and the day’s news to registered with its full impact, slamming right into her chest and _oh fuck_.

“Your heart rate just jumped,” Dr. Kartikeya said. “Don’t talk until I’m done, though. There’s scarring and then there’s _scarring_. I’m almost finished.”

The final scar Dr. Kartikeya showed Thaia was both aesthetically pleasing _and_ would impress Thaia’s krogan uncle. Win-win. Triple win if it earned Lexi’s approval.

However, with her head now clear, it was obvious that she and Lexi really did need to have an actual talk about the whole kid thing because Lexi had been dealing with this alone for five months and there was no fucking way that could’ve been easy. In Lexi’s place, Thaia would’ve been losing her mind and Thaia was used to dealing with disasters involving her personal life. But Lexi wasn’t. Lexi was always calm and composed and was a _doctor._

A doctor.

A doctor who’d accidentally knocked herself up.

Thaia stifled a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” asked Dr. Kartikeya.

“My bondmate’s pregnant,” Thaia said, which was weird to say without the fuzziness of the concussion to soften it. “It’s unplanned. And she’s a doctor.”

Though Dr. Kartikeya’s eyes flashed with amusement, a laugh failed to emerge and her tone was serious when she said, “I’m going to give you a piece of advice, okay? Unless she laughs about the situation first, don’t you dare. Not if you value both your life and your relationship.”

“Goddess, no. I wouldn’t. It’s shit that she’s had to deal with it alone for five months. She couldn’t even talk to me much less me be there in person.”

Dr. Kartikeya deactivated the terminal she’d been using and faced her fully. “It’s only going to get harder with you being an active commando.”

Thaia jumped down from the exam bed. “I know.” She knew, but before she’d left for the mission they’d just finished, she’d spoken with Dr. Aridana a few times and had scraped together enough of an application to send off for Armali’s combined graduate astrophysics and aerospace program before she’d gone into radio silence. There hadn’t been an expectation that she’d hear back before she returned since they’d thought the mission would be a couple months at most but… shit. It’d been five fucking months. She probably had an update waiting in her inbox.

Excitement and apprehension churned in her stomach. What if she hadn’t gotten in? It would’ve sucked before, but now it seemed like a way bigger deal because Lexi would be having their _daughter_ in a little over half a year. Moving to Armali and living with extended family would still be the best option once their kid was around, so that part of the plan still made sense. However, if Thaia hadn’t gotten into that program at Armali—truly the easiest university for her to get into—she didn’t have a case for leaving the militia. With a kid on the way, leaving her steady, well-paying job would be stupid. Sure, she had significant savings due to having inexpensive tastes—too inexpensive, according to Safira—combined with living with her family when not deployed. But living off savings alone would be too short-sighted to justify.

Goddess, she didn’t want to return to the field.

She’d have to talk to Rosava again before they got to the Citadel. During downtime on the mission, they’d gone over options for Thaia if she stayed with the militia full time or chose to step back to reserves. She didn’t want to muster out entirely because she wanted to keep up with the training, biotic skills especially. Teaching biotics part time to new recruits at the Republic of Armali’s training center in the city had been floated as a possibility and that appealed to Thaia a great deal. Maybe there was a way to make it a full time job if she didn’t get into the university’s program.

“Stop panicking and scram, Kallistrate,” said Dr. Kartikeya, emphasizing her command by pointing at the door once Thaia looked at her. “Go sleep. Rest will cut down on some of that anxiety.”

Thaia didn’t question how Dr. Kartikeya had known that she was slowly freaking out about because matriarchs just fucking _knew_ things and it was easier to accept it. So she darted from the medbay and hustled toward the Cybaen’s commando quarters. If she got there quick enough, she’d have time to call Lexi at an hour that wasn’t obscene. And if it was an obscene hour, she had no idea how to determine if Lexi was on days or nights at the hospital before she got back and she didn’t want to risk Lexi losing sleep. Not before and definitely not with the whole pregnancy thing and Thaia had no idea how much extra rest Lexi would need.

There was so fucking much she needed to learn and she should’ve started learning it months ago.

In the lift, Thaia downloaded several books about asari pregnancy and child-rearing. She was still trying to pick which one to read first when she reached the commando quarters, empty because the rest of them had gone to the evening communal meal down in the cruiser’s massive galley. It was fine. Thaia had eaten in the medbay after her concussion had been healed and now in here it’d be quiet for her and she wouldn’t even need to close her bunk’s privacy screen to get it.

Double-tiered bunks interspersed with personal lockers large enough to hold uniforms, combat armor, and sundries lined the long room. Thaia washed up, changed into fresh clothes, and then parked her ass in the bottom bunk closest to her assigned locker. Since it was equidistant between the room’s two doors, it had the best chance of leaving her undisturbed when the rest of the commandos inevitably flooded in to crash until they reached port.

After double-checking the time on the Citadel, Thaia slouched comfortably against the partition between her bunk and the next and then initiated the visual comm.

Lexi answered as soon as the connection green-lit, tiredness around the edges of her eyes. “There you are. How’s your head?”

“Concussion’s healed up without any residual brain trauma and I was soundly scolded for getting headbutted while not wearing a helmet because ‘next time I might not be so fortunate and incur permanent brain damage.’ Which I agree with and would suck and it wasn’t like I’d gone into the fight looking for headbutts.”

“If you picked a fight with a krogan, then you _were_ looking for headbutts.” After closing the window blinds, Lexi curled up in the corner of the sofa in their living room and huddled into her favorite sweater. Said sweater was also the ugliest sweater Thaia had ever seen in her entire life, but she’d ever once made fun of it because Lexi looked all soft and sentimental and cozy as fuck when she wore it and Thaia couldn’t take that away from her. Goddess, but that sweater was ugly, though. No item of clothing should ever combine every color of every spectrum together in a monstrosity mind-bending enough to induce nausea.

Thaia ignored it by keeping her focus on Lexi’s face. “I picked a fight with a human who had a krogan friend I didn’t know about until said krogan laid me out with a headbutt. Luckily, Urhe’s a nice guy.” She turned her head so Lexi could get a good look at her jaw. “If not for him, I wouldn’t have this badass new scar.”

“That isn’t a point in your favor,” Lexi said after a moment. “Or his.”

“You didn’t disagree with it being a badass new scar.” Which meant Lexi liked it and Thaia knew they both knew it.

Not that Lexi would ever admit it. “When are you expected to dock on the Citadel?”

“In the morning. Around 0900, I’m told.” Thaia struggled with the hope surging in her chest that she might get to see Lexi right away instead of after a shift at Huerta. “Are you going to be able to meet me there or will you be stuck at work?”

“I’ll be there. Harry arranged for Mallory to cover for me when you got home and for at least two days afterward after he heard you and your squad were back on the grid. It helps that my time at Huerta is winding down. I’ve only a month left before my rotation there is finished.” Lexi’s eyes twinkled. “Then I’ve two months before the semester starts in Armali.”

Thaia straightened so fast she hit her head on the bunk above her. “So you got—ow, _fuck_.” Rubbing the sore spot on her head, she finished her question. “You got in?”

The twinkle turned into a smile. “I did. The program will take five years or more, given how many species I wish to certify to treat. But I’m looking forward to the challenge. The university hospital will allow me to take enough shifts to keep my medical specialty certifications up to date. And being in Armali means that caring for our daughter won’t be as difficult as it would be on the Citadel.”

Thaia’s smile at hearing _our daughter_ would’ve been bigger than just one at the corner of her mouth if she hadn’t caught more of the tired shadows under Lexi’s eyes when she’d brought her up. “Are you all right?” Thaia asked softly. “I mean, I know we’ve had conversations about kids in the future, but that’d been abstract and we weren’t together at the time. So those nebulous plans were about some nebulous future partner and now… not so nebulous.”

Lexi shifted on the couch, like it’d become uncomfortable all of the sudden. “I’m okay now.” But there’d been a slight catch in her voice at the end of her sentence.

“Now?” Thaia leaned forward, as if that one action could somehow start to make up for the fact that she’d been gone for five months while Lexi had dealt with something this monumental. “Were you upset?”

“Upset isn’t the right word. Overwhelmed would fit better.”

_Fuck_. “That sounds like it sucked. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help.”

Lexi let out a breath. “While I wish you had been here, I wasn’t without aid. My mother and stepfather visited me for a while, as did your parents. They all made it clear that I wasn’t alone, nor would I be, no matter what happened. That helped immensely. What it didn’t help was my chagrin that I, a physician, ended up in this predicament. Which neither my mother nor Celaeno were shy in pointing out.”

Thaia’s relief rushed out in a laugh she couldn’t smother. “Did Celaeno gloat?”

“Did?” Lexi leaned forward in mirror to Thaia. “She hasn’t _stopped_. Her first comment was, and I quote, ‘the ultimate spontaneous adventure! That’s some exceptional melding if the doctor involved made the mistake.’”

“It _was_ exceptional,” Thaia said probably a little too dreamily.

Lexi frowned. Mostly playfully.

It should’ve entirely playful because it had been some of the best melding either of them had ever done and they’d even commented on it afterward. “I know you don’t disagree. Also, I was kind of wondering the same thing. I mean, if anyone’s betting on which of us would fuck up, those bets would be on me.” Thaia thought it over. “Well, I guess if they didn’t know about commandos having the mandatory contraception whatever thing so we don’t accidentally mother a kid.”

“Just hearing you describe it that way makes this entire situation even more mortifying.” Lexi sighed and straightened one of her sweater’s sleeves. “What I can figure is that I hadn’t slept with anyone for over two decades, much less melded, so contraception hadn’t crossed my mind for nearly that long. When it did, I believed that we would be fine, as I hadn’t experienced a single close call throughout my entire adult life. However, I’d neglected to take into account that the last time I’d engaged in an intimate meld, I hadn’t been a matron. Later, I was so far in denial that I’d convinced myself that it had been just that—an exceptional meld. Just… not exceptional in that specific way. My assumption was incorrect.”

“So what you’re really saying is that I’m amazing in bed.”

Lexi’s expression went neutral and her tone of voice matched it. “Thaia.”

“That’s not a no!” shouted Kiana.

Shit, Thaia hadn’t even realized Kiana had walked into the room. Wait, no, she hadn’t noticed her entire fucking _squad_ enter the room.

Lexi sighed with just the right amount of exasperation.

Thaia really, really tried not to grin but it was impossible not to. “It was an awesome experience from my side so that means you’re amazing in bed, too. And if that’s how melds that make kids are, we should make more kids.”

Before Lexi could answer, Shirin yelled, “Enough for a whole skyball team!”

Thaia rolled her eyes and panned the omni’s cam so Lexi could see all of her squadmates and they could all see Lexi and Thaia really should’ve closed the fucking privacy screen the moment she’d gotten into the bunk. If she had, their conversation would’ve stayed private. Instead, the entire squad was, once again, an enthusiastic and questionably supportive audience.

“That is an absurd number of children,” Lexi said to them.

“That’s not a no!” said Ovadia, squeezing in between Shirin and Nawra. Given her small size, it wasn’t hard.

It was a lot of kids, though. Too many. Though the skyball team aspect did appeal. “Maybe just enough for the offense or defense,” said Thaia.

Lexi sighed.

“That wasn’t a no, either!” said Kiana.

“Maybe,” Lexi said to Thaia, “we should continue this discussion when you get home. You need sleep, either way. I love you and I’ll be there in the morning to meet you at the docks.”

Then Thaia and her squad chorused a goodbye to Lexi and the call ended.

Morning felt too far away.

“Now you need to go to sleep,” Ovadia said to Thaia in the most commanding tone Thaia had ever heard from her. A commanding tone that almost made up for the fact that Ovadia was a full head shorter than her. “You argue with me and you’re arguing with your bondmate and I _will_ tell her if you aren’t doing what you’re supposed to.”

Out of principle, Thaia made a face.

“Don’t,” Rosava said from closer to the doorway. “I shouldn’t have to make it an order, but I will if need be.”

“If you ask Rosava nicely, I bet she’ll tuck you in,” said Kiana.

“Fuck _off_.”

**The Citadel, 2211.**

When Thaia and her squadmates stepped onto the dock outside the Cybaen’s berth on the Citadel, Thaia immediately forgot about the bustle of people around her because Lexi was right there on the opposite side of the docks. Right there and her brilliant smile was all Thaia could possibly have been expected to see and she grinned right back like a dumbass but she didn’t care. She didn’t care when her squadmates jostled her as they walked past until they obscured her view of Lexi.

Thaia dropped her bag and ditched her pack and sprinted forward, shoving aside her squadmates and a couple unlucky passersby in the process. Then she wrapped Lexi up in the _best_ fucking hug and Lexi must’ve stopped by the hospital earlier because the antiseptic almost overwhelmed the scent of irsaal. But Thaia didn’t care which was stronger because both meant Lexi and Lexi was in her arms again and she would fucking revel in it. Her only concession to space was pulling back just far enough to bring their lips together, savoring the softness and the counterpoint of Lexi’s fingers grasping her shirt to haul her closer. Thaia framed Lexi’s face with her hands, fingertips drifting toward the valleys on her neck before whoops and hollers and even a few whistles from her squadmates and some of the Cybaen’s disembarking crew reminded Thaia that they were in a very public place.

“There’s no need to stop on our account,” Shirin said as she walked past and placed Thaia’s pack on on the floor next to her.

Right behind Shirin with Thaia’s seabag in addition to her own, Kiana said, “The show was just starting to get good, too.”

“Try not to get taken in for indecent exposure,” said Nawra, who then headed toward the C-Sec checkpoint with the others.

“Don’t get taken in for _anything. _It’s too much stress!” Ovadia halted next to them. “Lexi, how are you feeling? I promise I tried really hard to convince Dash not to let her jaw scar but I couldn’t get her to budge and I hope you’ll be—”

Rosava walked up, placed her hands on Ovadia’s shoulders, and then turned her toward C-Sec. “You can fuss over them later. Now go catch up with the rest of the squad.” Once Ovadia started walking, Rosava smiled warmly at Lexi. “You’re looking well. Congratulations again.” Then she brought her attention to Thaia. “Contact me in a few days so we can discuss your future in more detail. I’ll be on the Citadel for the next two weeks, so there’s no rush. Enjoy your time.” After another smile at both of them, she headed in the same direction the rest of Lucen’s Guides had gone.

Lexi’s eyes flicked between Rosava’s disappearing figure and Thaia before asking, “What was that about?”

Thaia gently used her hands framing Lexi’s face to encourage Lexi to look at her again. “It _means_,” she said, excitement making it hard to form the words properly, “that she and I are going to figure out what I’ll be doing with the militia because I’ve gotten into a combined graduate program at Armali and—”

Before she could finish telling Lexi the news, Lexi tugged her down for another kiss that stole Thaia’s ability to think about anything other than how much she’d missed Lexi’s body against hers but also missed the wonderful mind and heart this fucking happy about the new possibilities of their future together. Thaia pulled away to kiss the tip of Lexi’s nose and then pressed their foreheads together. Just breathing in her presence and allowing everything within her to settle into a calm she only experienced at home.

Thaia brushed circles with her thumbs over the new dusting of freckles on Lexi’s cheeks that were somehow hot and adorable at the same time. “I love these. I wish you could keep them.”

Lexi smiled and placed her hands over Thaia’s before lowering them. “I still haven’t gotten used to them. I suspect that by the time I do, they’ll be well on their way to full matron markings.” She reached up, getting a good grip on Thaia’s jaw before somewhat gently turning Thaia’s head to the side. “But never mind me right now. I want to get a better look at this new scar of yours.”

“You mean this _awesome_ new scar of mine.” Thaia had to repress a shiver when Lexi placed her thumb right in the notch the chair had left in her jawline. For some reason, the scar was highly sensitive.

“Goddess, that chair didn’t just cut you, it _gouged_ you.”

“Yeah, well, you should see the chair.”

Lexi leaned back and raised an eyebrow, though she kept her hand on Thaia’s jaw.

“Okay, so the chair was perfectly fine.” Thaia gestured toward the docks behind her. “Urhe offered to buy it off the bar’s owner and give it to me. I was still a little concussed when he explained why, but I think it was something about melting down the plasteel and then using it to build a creche. Don’t worry, I said no. I figured building your kid a bed out of something that tried to kill you is tempting fate.”

“There’s hope for you yet.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said about me.”

“Where you could hear, it is.”

Thaia blushed. She’d been expecting a burn and instead Lexi had said something with earnest affection and Thaia was left to blushing and staring dumbly and not saying a fucking word.

When it became obvious that Thaia couldn’t reply, Lexi handed her the pack Kiana had dropped at her feet. Getting the hint, Thaia threw it over her shoulder—and then used both straps because Lexi briefly frowned at just the one strap. After Thaia grabbed the handle of her seabag, Lexi took her free hand and started for C-Sec.

After a few steps, Lexi said, “I should warn you that most of the family is at the apartment.”

Fuck.

The conference call from months ago instantly leapt to the front of Thaia’s mind because this could end up like that except _in person_. And there was so much shit they’d be giving and _fuck_. Maybe, if she was lucky, certain members of her family wouldn’t be there. Like Meir, for instance. “Most?”

“Yes. Safira arrived with Auri and Basya an hour or so ago, while I was at work. Your parents are waiting at C-Sec so it doesn’t take as long to get you through. The others are at home.”

“Please tell me ‘the others’ doesn’t include Meir.”

“Would you like me to lie?”

Thaia scowled. So much for luck.

Lexi gave her an admonishing look that was accompanied by an equally as admonishing tone. “She only wants what’s best for you.”

“She could want that and _not_ embarrass the fuck out of me.”

They dodged a family of turians followed by weaving around a cluster of Alliance soldiers. Once they were clear, Lexi said, “Should the opportunity arise to embarrass you, I’m not convinced she’s capable of passing it up.”

“Because she isn’t,” Thaia said with a grumble.

In between meeting Lexi and having to deal with Meir, Thaia had the chance to interact with C-Sec. In fact, it was almost pleasant because they breezed through in less than twenty minutes and Thaia even gave Carlson a cheerful wave on her way out.

Once free, Thaia unabashedly rushed to give her parents hugs because she hadn’t seen _them_ in five months, either. And even at three hundred and thirty, there was something comforting about it when you’d just received some good yet life-changing news.

Hand on Thaia’s shoulder, Sula looked between her and Lexi and then over at Indah. “Their kid’s going to end up taller than any of us. That’s my bet.”

Lexi sighed. “You promised me you wouldn’t place bets.”

“I promised I wouldn’t for what day she’ll be born, not how tall she’ll be when she turns fifty.” Sula turned to Thaia. “It’s weird when you have to look up to look your kid in the eye and here’s betting you’ll be experiencing that one day.”

“Lexi will,” said Indah, herding them toward the bank of elevators. “But I’m not so certain about Waterbug.”

“_Mother_.” Thaia quickly surveyed the crowd because goddess help her if anyone she knew had overheard. Meir, specifically. Meir finding out about it would be an unspeakable degree of horrifying.

Indah went on as if she hadn’t picked up the reason for Thaia’s objection—and Indah Kallistrate was the queen of reading subtext so she was doing it on purpose—while also ignoring the glut of people pressed into the elevator as it ascended toward another hub that would take them to the Wards. “I’m merely using Auri and Basya’s heights for the purpose of prediction since Jirou was tall, as most salarians are, yet neither of your nieces are taller than Safira. So I suspect that your daughter will end up somewhere between the two of you.”

“She’s gonna be taller than the both of them, mark my words,” said Sula. “Besides, Basya’s probably still got some growing left to do. Thaia shot up the first time and then still got another six or seven centimeters a few years later. You know, right after she’d just gotten used to her new height and had stopped being clumsy as fuck. Unfortunately for Basya, she’s still in the clumsy as fuck stage. The only time she isn’t is when she’s playing ball.” Sula tilted her head to the side. “Maybe that’s why she plays so damn much.” Then she grinned at Thaia and Lexi. “Maybe your kid’ll be a ballplayer, too!”

“She hasn’t even been born yet,” said Lexi.

“Love, Lexi does have a point,” said Indah.

Instead of arguing, Sula simply returned her attention to Thaia. “You freaked out about the birth? Might be that you missed the first five months of freaking the fuck out but you’ve got another seven to psych yourself up to witness a birth. You might even need to get some therapy for that squeamishness of yours. I’m not sure which’ll be worse for you—watching your first kid be born or later when it’s your turn to give birth.”

Thaia hadn’t thought that far ahead yet and she _knew_ the birth process would be gross and she felt faint enough that she wondered if she had any blood left in her face. _Fuck_.

“We’ll find a solution,” Lexi said, placing a reassuring hand at the small of Thaia’s back. Reassuring and probably ready to catch Thaia if she happened to actually faint, not that Thaia blamed her.

And what if there wasn’t a solution? What would they do then? Would she have to miss her kid being born because they couldn’t risk her throwing up and contaminating the water? Would the smell override the comforting scent of seawater? She didn’t want her kid born into puke-laden water and _goddess_ that was fucking _gross_ and she might end up puking in this fucking elevator and—

“Now look what you’ve done,” said Indah, casting Sula an admonishing look. “You’ve unnecessarily wound her up like a pyjak caught between a thresher maw and a hungry krogan.” She sighed and looked at Thaia. “Lexi’s right. There is a solution to be found. I’ll have a look at my mother’s journals when we get home. Though krogan, my father suffered from exceptional squeamishness and with how often my mother teased her about it, she never mentioned anything about it surrounding my birth. Yet my father was present through the entire process. Perhaps my mother wrote down how they accomplished such a feat.”

The elevator stopped and nearly everyone exited, delaying conversation until they’d broken free of the crowd and began walking toward the mass transit stop.

“Your dad was squeamish?” Sula asked Indah as soon as they’d summoned a vehicle. “That’s where our kid got it from? And I went over three hundred years not knowing? Were you ever going to fucking tell me?”

Indah’s gaze remained on the skycars overhead. “Until now, I didn’t believe that from whom Thaia inherited the trait was important.”

Sula scoffed good-naturedly. “And yet your ass was determined to find out why this one was a little blue ball of energy as a kid when you’d been well-behaved and calm as a kid so there was ‘no plausible way this reckless child of mine could have inherited it from my side,’ and so began the hunt for the cause.”

“If I recall correctly, it was a short hunt,” Indah said archly.

Lexi looked directly at Sula. “Was it you?”

Sula grinned. “Close. My mother. You never would’ve guessed it from how she was as a matriarch. That’s what gives us hope about this kid.”

“Whatever,” said Thaia, stomach settled enough for her to roll her eyes without risking another bout of nausea. “Amma was awesome.”

“I agree. Matriarch Aysu was a force to be reckoned with,” said Indah. “Thaia taking after her is a blessing from Athame.”

Sula stared at her. “That’s not what you said when she was eight and couldn’t be content with running around in the grass like any other kid, and so she cobbled together a homemade catapult and shot three kikamas from the Armali house’s yard all the way to the next block over, smashing on impact with Tinashe’s ugly-ass decorative fountain and splattering her guests—revered matriarchs both—with pulverized kikama.”

Thaia burst into laughter. Matriarch Tinashe had been _pissed_ and turning all sorts of colors and Thaia had caught sight of Sula ducking around the corner to hide, desperately holding back laughter. Then she’d quickly carried Thaia outside while Indah dealt with Tinashe. Goddess, she and her dad had laughed so hard they’d cried.

“Is that when your interest in physics began?” asked Lexi.

“Applied physics, yeah,” said Thaia. “That was also when the rule was created that any big experiments, such as catapulting anything and ‘no, you aren’t allowed to catapult _anyone_’ had to be done at the bay. Also I had to clean Matriarch Tinashe’s fountain.”

“Which was too bad, really,” said Sula, ushering them into the skycar that’d landed on the parking deck. “The kikama mash had been an improvement.”

The storytelling from Thaia’s parents continued for the entire ride through the Tayseri Ward, the walk to the apartment from the busy street, and through the apartment building’s lobby. Sula waved at the concierge but didn’t break off from going on about the time Thaia had gotten bored inside a siari temple and applied a chemistry lesson she’d learned from Jarah and Safira to turn the water in one of the temple’s many water channels into a polymer and then refused to tell anyone who’d taught her the trick and it had been Jarah and Safira who’d eventually divulged the truth.

“Technically,” Indah said as they strode down the hallway on the same floor as the apartment, “Thaia has yet to implicate either of them.”

Sula glanced between Indah and Lexi, Lexi’s expression a strange mixture of amused and horrified, and then gave her a reassuring pat on the back. “Don’t worry, we don’t actually want your kid to turn out like her. No one’s hearts can take it. If we’re all lucky, she’ll be more like you in temperament. All calm and shit. That’s something you _really_ want for a first kid and Indah and I lucked out with Safira being more like her than me.”

Thaia hoped so, too. When she’d been a kid and her teachers had called her ‘spirited,’ they hadn’t meant it as a compliment most of the time and only now did Thaia see why.

“I’m not certain that makes me feel any better,” said Lexi.

Indah drew to a halt in front of the door. “Did it make you feel worse?”

“No.” Lexi entered the security code into the lock panel. “I suppose that’s something.” Then the door opened.

As Lexi had forewarned, the rest of Thaia’s side of their family waited inside. From just through the doorway, Thaia could see Uncle Khel and Aunt Jarah near the loveseat in the living room, Safira and Eirian over by the window with Harry, then Basya and Auri in the kitchen, standing near a person who’d gotten Thaia and Lexi shot at on more than one occasion by the Blood Pack. Months in the past or not, it wasn’t something Thaia was about to forget anytime soon. Soon being at least a fucking decade.

Thaia tossed her pack and seabag to the side of the doorway and marched right into the kitchen.

“What the fuck is _Nef_ doing here?” she asked and then gestured at the two innocent children. “Anywhere near _them_?” With that, Thaia grabbed each of her nieces by the arm and took them away from Nef’s reasonable yet perplexingly shady as fuck influence.

“She’s with me,” Meir said from the couch when Thaia pulled Auri and Basya into the living room.

Thaia let go of her nieces and glared at Meir. “What the fuck are _you_ doing here?”

Meir slowly surveyed the room as if the answer was completely obvious. “Sitting on your couch.”

But Meir wasn’t sitting on the couch like a normal person. She was fucking lounging on it, leaving zero space available for anyone else.

It wasn’t even her fucking couch.

Besides, Thaia was pretty sure Lexi needed to be sitting or something. Resting. Resting was good. Thaia hadn’t had time yet to finish any of the books she’d downloaded but resting seemed like a thing a pregnant person should be doing. But Lexi couldn’t even sit down on her own couch because Meir had decided to take it over. Thaia hadn’t been able to be there to help Lexi before, but she was here now and she could start by getting her sister off the couch.

“Fucking _move_,” Thaia said as she kneed Meir’s feet aside. “Your ass doesn’t need the whole fucking thing.”

Meir put her feet back. “No, I like it here.”

“Lexi needs a place to sit. I swear to the goddess I will dump you off this couch if I have to.”

“Really?” Meir settled in further and smirked. “Try it, karyote.”

“No!” A darker blue blur leapt between them, one hand out behind her and the other forward, toward Thaia. Basya, every gangly centimeter of her, was determined to force her aunts to behave. “No fighting! Mum said there’s news and now that Aunt Thaia’s finally back home someone is supposed to tell us and no one can if you’re fighting! Goddess, just tell us what it is!”

After clearing her throat to get Basya’s attention, Safira raised an eyebrow at her.

Basya rolled her eyes and then amended her statement. “_Please_ just tell us what it is.”

Meir forgotten, Thaia panicked because she’d assumed her entire family knew and Thaia herself hadn’t even known for a whole day yet and somehow she was supposed to tell her _nieces_ and she didn’t have a concussion anymore to make the words easy to say through how excited she was and fuck it she’d give it a try.

“This wasn’t planned, but you’re going to have a new cousin soon,” Thaia said.

“We _are_?” Basya hopped up and down but then came to a sudden stop and narrowed her eyes at Thaia. “Wait. I thought commandos had the contraception thing while on active duty and you were literally just on active duty so—”

Leaning against the same wall as the vid panel, Auri said, “Basya.” Then she tilted her head toward Lexi. “Have you looked at Aunt Lexi for more than two seconds since she got here? She’s got _freckles _and she didn’t have those the last time we saw her. And there’s a bump right there for anyone to see even if it _is_ small.”

Hearing her nieces refer to Lexi as their aunt made Thaia smile like a dumbass and become momentarily useless.

“Oh. _Oh_!” Basya grinned and bolted to Lexi to give her a hug that Lexi heartily returned. “This is great!”

Auri turned a bewildered look on Lexi. “I don’t get it, though. You’re a doctor. You know way better than Aunt Thaia.”

“It’s nice to know that at least one of you has been paying attention in biology,” said Safira.

“Karyote’s ability to be a complete disaster is highly contagious,” said Meir. “Lexi isn’t at fault here.”

Lexi gave Basya’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll not go into any details, but suffice to say that it can happen to the best of us, even physicians.”

“As I’ve said before, it can happen to the best of us,” said Harry.

Lexi sighed.

“When’s she due?” asked Basya.

“Seven months.”

Seven months. In seven months they’d get to meet their daughter face-to-face, but they’d start getting to know her earlier than that. Thaia was kind of fuzzy on the details and couldn’t remember exactly when they could start melding with her, but it was months before she would be born. Excitement rushed through her limbs. It was going to be a long seven months but the patience would be worth it. She made eye contact with Lexi and, for the first time while talking about the pregnancy, the smile she directed at Thaia wasn’t touched by tiredness.

“You know what?” said Eirian, pushing herself off the window and taking a few steps toward the rest of them. “I did the math. You should name her Aella since she was made after a whirlwind bonding.”

Aunt Jarah rubbed her forehead. “Please tell me it didn’t happen during your little jaunt on Aite.”

From his spot on the love seat, Uncle Khel began to chuckle. When Jarah flicked him on the headplate and scowled at him, his laughs only rumbled louder. Within them were mumbles of _I can’t wait to tell Drack about this shit_.

Not knowing whether plausible deniability was an available option and wondering if maybe they _had_ made their daughter on the derelict, Thaia looked at Lexi.

Lexi sighed. “It isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”

Dramatically raising her arms, Meir sat up straight and gaped at Thaia. “On the derelict? Seriously?!”

“Goddess,” Safira said, as she walked over to Thaia and pulled her into a hug. Fond laughter found its way into her words. “You’re a disaster, but I still love you.”

“More like a blue blur of complete chaos,” said Meir, throwing her own arm across Thaia’s shoulders.

Effectively trapped, Thaia began to suffer from paranoia about why her sisters had done it and what they planned to do to her. Then again, their parents were there and Harry and Nef too, so it couldn’t be too bad. Hopefully. Also they liked Lexi more than her and were never mean to Lexi. Ever. At all. Even right then, Eirian had gone to stand next to Lexi, Sula, and Indah.

Nef wandered from the kitchen into the living room, somehow not blocking anyone’s view even with a Basya so excited she was practically vibrating, Indah, Sula, and Lexi all in the same area between the two rooms. “If you don’t agree with Eirian’s suggestion, you should name her after me.”

“No,” said Thaia.

“Absolutely not,” Lexi said simultaneously and punctuated it with a glare.

Which didn’t affect Nef in the slightest. She merely folded her arms and appeared at ease with the entire universe. “I did give you that shuttle.”

What the fuck with trying to take credit when she’d nearly gotten her and Lexi fucking killed. “You didn’t give it to me. I had to pay for it. With credits and dodging bullets.”

“I’m hurt that you still think I would do such a thing on purpose.” Nef drummed her fingers on her elbow. “Shuttle aside, there’s still the fact that Meir forgot to hit send because we were—”

“No details!” Thaia said louder than everyone else probably thought necessary but it _was_ necessary. Screaming wouldn’t have been an overreaction, honestly.

“Were what?” asked Auri.

“No, no, you don’t want to know either.” Thaia would protect her from having to think about details. Sure, Auri was an adolescent and technically able to handle hearing things like that but while you could be happy for your relative getting some action, you didn’t need _details_. “For real,” she added when Auri didn’t look convinced.

But she was finally placated by Lexi’s matter-of-fact, “I can explain some of it later.” She sent a brief, pointed as fuck glare Nef’s way. “For safety’s sake.”

“That reminds me,” Meir said to Thaia in a dangerously speculative tone. “Has Lexi done the thing? Specifically, did she do the thing when you two accidentally made the kid? If that’s the case, I can see why it happened because—”

Repressing a scream and desperate to shut her sister up, Thaia shoved Meir, sending her staggering toward the couch for two steps before she recovered. Then Meir got her by the arm and used her momentum to flip Thaia over her shoulder and upside down on the couch.

There were times in the past when it would have ended there, but she wasn’t going let Meir win easily. Thaia gritted her teeth and pushed off the cushion in an attempt to wrap her legs around Meir, but Meir twisted and grabbed Thaia’s ankles. The rest happened in a blur of flailing limbs and swearing but it ended with Thaia pinned on the floor between the sofa and the table, Meir’s knee in her back.

“Took you a minute longer than usual to take her down,” said Sula. “Looks like either someone’s slowing down or someone else is showing improvement.”

From the corner of her eye, Thaia saw Indah take a few steps into the living room. “I believe Thaia has improved her techniques. When I entered the derelict, there was an instant where she nearly detected one of my footsteps.”

Nearly detected, Thaia noted. And only the once because none of them could hear Indah sneaking up on them. Not even Meir, who’d stayed a commando the longest. Thaia squirmed to test Meir’s hold but it only tightened further with the knee in her back pressing down a little harder.

“You can tap out or you can stay right here,” Meir said, not even out of breath.

“I’m not fucking tapping out.” It was hard to sound defiant with her cheek pressed against the floor, but Thaia wasn’t giving in. “If I’m stuck here then you’re stuck here.”

“Not if Safira puts you in a stasis.”

“This is between you and Thaia,” said Safira, mildly exasperated. “Don’t drag me into it.”

Sula’s feet came into view, close enough that Thaia could see a scuff mark on her shoe. “For fuck’s sake, let her up.” Then Sula pulled Meir off despite protests that were quickly quelled. “The plan was to make this day relaxing for them and your shit-stirring isn’t relaxing anyone.”

“I’m enjoying it,” said Eirian.

“Oh, yes,” said Harry. “As I’ve mentioned before, the dynamic here is fascinating.”

Their comments went ignored by Sula as she helped Thaia to her feet and then placed herself physically between Meir and Thaia. “We figured Lexi could do with some rest and relaxation and, since you’re back from a long as fuck mission, you could do with the same. So we got you some passes to a real nice bathhouse here.”

“Nef recommended it,” said Meir.

Eirian laughed.

“Nope,” said Thaia. “Sorry, can’t accept them.”

At the same time, Lexi said, “I’m sorry, but there’s no possible way we would accept anything from Nef, including recommendations. The last time we accepted something from her, we ended up dodging gunfire. Given that experience, anything else would be the opposite of relaxing.”

“If it helps, Sula and I did due diligence,” said Indah. “We inspected the premises and spoke with the proprietor. Only then did we purchase passes. Aside from recommending Thermae, Nef had no involvement.”

Lexi bit her lip before she said, “Then I suppose—”

“No,” said Thaia. The only thing she could imagine worse than getting shot at while not wearing armor was getting shot at while _naked_.

“Come on, you don’t have to be this difficult.” Meir grumbled and went to get around Sula, but Sula stepped in front of her again. After rolling her eyes, Meir addressed Thaia from where she stood. “I’ve been there once. It’s a nice place. Has a lot of famous visitors. Karyote, there’s even a skyball there signed by your favorite Armali player.”

Thaia bounced on her feet much like Basya had earlier. “Where is it? We’ll need directions,” she said, pretending she hadn’t looked over Sula’s shoulder to see Lexi facepalm.

* * *

Thermae’s architectural style and decor was somehow more traditional than any of the baths Thaia had visited on Thessia and she’d visited a _lot_ of baths on her home planet. Yet, here she was on the fucking Citadel, staring forty meters up at a barrel vaulted ceiling of absurdly extravagant pure white Kurinthian marble arching above the immense swimming pool that gave the _kolbethra_ its name. A lot of modern baths didn’t even have the _kolbethra_—an actual swimming and diving pool—and the reason why modern places didn’t typically have one was because encouraging exercise before going further inside the baths was an ancient as fuck tradition even for asari. And the ancient as fuck tradition guaranteed that this place encouraged following the entire traditional order of bathing from coldest to warmest: _kheima_, _balaneion_, and then _thalukros_ or _thalassa_.

While Thaia looked forward to the hot saltwater and eezo of the _thalassa_, it seemed exercise in the _kolbethra_ was up first. She didn’t mind. After all, she loved a good swim. The only kind of swim she loved more was a good _competitive_ swim. And the last time—admittedly, the last several times—she’d competed against Lexi, Lexi had won. It’d been nearly a year since the last time Thaia had tried to better her record, and the cold as fuck pool of the _kheima_ was almost tolerable if you worked up a good sweat before going in. Otherwise, dipping a single toe into the frigid water was torture and Thaia questioned the motives of people who favored the _kheima_ over any others.

That was one reason why the mosaic of Tevura’s wily twin sister’s run-in with Kurinth was in the cold water pool and not the hot water pool. In fact, one of the many traditional artworks of Kurinth catching the wrong sister ended with Panaka literally dumping a bucket of cold water over Kurinth’s head because, unlike her identical twin, Panaka would _not_ be banging the huntress at the end of the chase.

So of course the artwork depicting the ending of Kurinth’s successful hunt for Tevura was traditionally located in the _thalukros_—the hot bath.

The _thalassa_, Thaia’s favorite that she much looked forward to enjoying with Lexi, often had depictions of a third ending to Kurinth’s hunt: the huntress caught in her own net and at the mercies of both Tevura and Panaka. But she and Lexi needed to actually start the bathing process if they were ever going to reach the best bathing pool.

Thaia looked at Lexi standing beside her and tilted her head toward the pool. “Race you.”

Lexi raised an eyebrow. “You’re serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Incredulous, Lexi looked down at herself and then up at Thaia, silently pointing out the small, yet obvious bump curving from torso. “You’re willing to go to lengths such as directly challenging someone at a distinct disadvantage in order to win? Because let me inform you how that will go. One, you win, but it won’t count because I’m at a disadvantage. Two, you lose and you have to live with me having beaten you despite my current disadvantage.”

“Okay, okay, you make a good point.” Thaia had started smiling like an idiot when Lexi had brought attention to the bump and now she couldn’t seem to stop. It was one thing to see it beneath clothing and entirely another when the only thing you and your bondmate wore were your bracelets. “I guess our race can be postponed.”

“You _guess_?” Lexi’s eyes swept over the pool again. “Then I guess I’ll be challenging you to a race while you’re taking your turn to carry. And win without feeling a whit of guilt.”

“Fine, no races at all when either of us are experiencing significant hydrodynamic drag.”

Seemingly despite herself, Lexi smiled softly and hooked Thaia’s pinky finger with her own before leading her down the steps into the pool. “We’ll do an easy, single-length lap and move on.”

Thaia followed her though the hip-deep water, but when she commented out loud about Lexi’s extra buoyancy possible affecting potential hydrodynamic drag, Lexi immediately shoved her into the deeper end of the pool. As Thaia swam the rest of the single lap, she kept her mouth shut about the equations she’d use to calculate the difference in drag later.

Water dripped on the tiled floor when they exited on the other side and then grabbed towels from the plentiful stacks located in a nearby niche of shelves. Thaia was able to dry off and wrap her towel around her waist without issue. Lexi, however, was left to fussing with securing hers. As the fussing went on and Lexi’s frown began to emerge, Thaia really did her best not to look amused. She really did. She fucking held in her laughter the best she’d managed in decades. But when the towel fell for the fourth time and a _shit_ was muttered under Lexi’s breath, Thaia couldn’t hide it any longer. But even while she quietly laughed, she returned to the stacks and grabbed a krogan-sized towel that’d give Lexi more than enough extra material to secure it so she could have her hands free.

It took Lexi a moment to notice Thaia holding the folded towel out to her. After a brief scowl, she accepted it and wound it around herself.

Thaia still refrained from commenting. While daring to an excessive degree, she didn’t have a death wish.

“Thank you,” Lexi said when Thaia returned from depositing the inadequate towel in the laundry bin. “For both the towel and withholding commentary on my predicament.” She sighed and glanced down at herself. “It’s only been since last week that I’ve started showing enough for it to disrupt my routines, including clothing. As a physician, I understand. As a person, physically adapting is tougher to deal with than I’d believed it would be.”

A small amount of regret twinged in Thaia’s heart at Lexi having to deal with adjusting to this—shit, making _all_ the decisions about the unplanned pregnancy, some of which had to have been incredibly hard—without her there. Without her available in any way whatsoever. “It’s the least I can do. Gotta start somewhere to make up for all the months I wasn’t here to help.”

“For your thoughtfulness, and because I don’t think the shock would be healthy, I’m for skipping the _kheima_ on this visit.”

“Oh no, skipping the pool of water so fucking cold it might as well be ice?” The only thing Thaia would miss about the _kheima_ was its Kurinth and Panaka mosaic, if just to see which trick Panaka played on Kurinth for catching the wrong twin. “How upsetting.”

Lexi hummed her agreement and began to walk along the pathway to the other rooms. “Even I think the _kheima_ is excessively cold.”

Thaia managed a vague nod and that was it because Lexi’s towel was so fucking big that a good ten centimeters of material dragged on the floor and Thaia could _not _say a fucking word about it because it would be mean and terrible and—

For once in her life, Thaia was grateful the frigid air that crept from the _kheima_’s open entrance when they went by, causing her to shiver and forget Lexi’s oversized towel and instead pick up her speed to reach the next area.

Judging by the giggles, it was the shallow pools—_tenagos_—none of them higher than ankle-deep on a salarian.

Several small, oblong pools dotted the oval-shaped room lit by multicolored shafts of artificial sunlight reaching through the roof’s curved stained glass windows. Children’s laughter echoed off brightly painted walls as little feet scampered across mosaic tiles depicting mythology scenes from the ancient Athamist pantheon—etalis kits and Thessian dwe’kki gathered around the goddess of animals, protection, and wilderness, Suul.

“I keep meaning to ask if your father is named after this goddess,” Lexi said, tapping on Suul’s face with her foot.

Thaia laughed. “She’ll say no. However, my grandmother told me and my sisters that she and Granddad liked the modern take on the name and then Aunt Jarah insisted they name her that because her favorite myths were Suul’s.”

“So your aunt essentially named your father?”

“Yeah, but don’t expect her to admit it. Ever.”

“It might be that it runs in your family. I have to confess, I do like the name your sister suggested.”

Thaia looked around the room, further noting the differences between Thermae and baths on Thessia. In addition to numerous asari toddlers, Thermae’s shallows hosted many of their non-asari parents—from krogan to turian to human and even a few drell—who wouldn’t have been able to share the same experience in a bath on Thessia due to the overabundance of eezo. Maybe she and Lexi could bring their own daughter someday to play both with the asari kids and the kids of other species here, too.

Then Thaia sighed. “Yeah, it’s a good enough name that it might be worth Eirian being smug about it for centuries if we use it.”

Lexi looked over at Thaia, a dry remark dangling on the warning curl at the corner of her mouth, but then she switched topics. “Look,” she said, discreetly motioning behind Thaia.

She turned to see a turian with an asari kid who couldn’t have been older than four standing in the shallowest pool that barely covered the turian’s feet. While the kid gleefully kicked up water as she splashed circles around her father, said father looked like he thought they’d be hit by a rogue wave at any second. “He looks terrified. Should we get him floaties or something?”

Lexi elbowed her in the side, hard. “Be nice. He’s overcoming fear for his daughter’s benefit. My father did the same when he took me to swimming lessons.”

“Then someone should’ve offered _him_ floaties so he could be happy like his daughter and not plain scared the whole time. It’s the nice thing to do.” Thaia truly wished she could’ve met Lexi’s dad. From the stories Lexi had told, he sounded like he’d been pretty awesome.

After a moment, Lexi leaned into her side and her voice softened. “My mother did. And my father considered wearing them, but ultimately decided against it because he wanted to overcome his fear without being reliant on external measures.”

“Did he?”

“For the most part. He eventually came around to believing that someone who wasn’t him or another turian could find playing in the water to be fun instead of harrowing.”

In the shallow pool, the turian took his kid by the forearms and spun her in a circle as she giggled, her heels kicking up fantails through the water.

“A few times,” Lexi said, her voice even fonder, “I managed to convince him to stand almost neck deep in the water so I could jump off his shoulders. But only when my mother was there, too. In case I became in need of rescue.”

“That’s adorable.”

“It was.” Lexi threaded an arm through the crook of Thaia’s elbow and started for the next area. “Speaking of adorable, did you truly take your first steps and then immediately sprint into the sea or was your father exaggerating?”

“I did. But I could swim before I could walk, so I was fine. My dad’s blood pressure, not so much.”

“In many ways, you’re both lucky to be alive after your childhood.”

“As an adult,” Thaia said as she slid a quick a grin Lexi’s way, “I will settle for getting lucky.”

Lexi gave her another good elbow to the ribs, but she didn’t say no, either.

Thaia was still stifling a laugh when they entered the central hall of the baths. Inside was the _balaneion_, the largest pool and most popular social gathering area of any traditional bathhouse. Thermae didn’t disappoint in either regard.

Rows of clerestory windows under another vaulted ceiling of Kurinthian marble let the Presidium’s artificial sunlight fall onto the tepid waters of the rectangular pool. At the bottom of the pool was another mosaic, this time of the entire pantheon with heavy emphasis on outlining the heads of each figure in the _amaxa_ style favored in Usaru.

Thaia only knew that because she’d asked Eirian a question about why some of the floor mosaics were different while they walked through the Armali Guildhall. Eirian had happily explained the _amaxa_ technique and how the outlining was done—the artists placed small, dark-colored tesserae around objects as shadowing to create the illusion of depth. But Eirian had covered the topic even more thoroughly. Thoroughly enough that Thaia had regretted the question ten minutes into the excruciatingly detailed forty-five minute answer.

The mosaics were really cool, though. Thermae’s _balaneion_ mosaic extended upward from the pool and onto the floor, blue-tiled rivers flowing into several semi-circular recessed exedrae to unfurl into scenes featuring one or more goddesses of the pantheon.

In the far corner, standing over a depiction of Radana playing her first instrument, was a quarian quartet whose music floated as lightly in the air as people did the water. Low enough to allow for conversations—possibly various business negotiations—taking place in a few of the exedrae, while loud enough to be appreciated. In another recess, there was a pair of dry, swimsuit-clad humans in armchairs positioned between the goddesses Teleon and Elen, thoroughly engrossed in reading paper books held in their laps.

Lexi, eyes on the readers, said, “I wouldn’t mind a stroll through the library after we’ve seen the gardens.”

“You know what kind of library would be interesting?” Thaia unwrapped her towel and placed it in a bin tucked away in a niche. “Sports history from species across the galaxy. The skyball displays were great, but here they have all those ones for different human sports too. I hadn’t paid much attention to human sports before this and I’m curious now. Some look pretty fun.”

“And now I’m wondering if your plans for returning to school are less driven by academics and more driven by the numerous opportunities you’ll have to play skyball.” For many, what Lexi said could have been accusatory, but her affection was as warm as the water that washed around them when they walked into the pool.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to possibly finding an amateur team. But that’s time and schedule dependent, too.” Thaia followed Lexi farther into the calm pool, the water’s temperature a welcoming embrace instead of a slap to the face like the _kheima_ would’ve been. But she hadn’t lost the thread of thought about skyball and how the reality of it had changed from when she’d first gotten excited about returning to Thessia on a permanent basis. Since they had a kid on the way and then they’d have an infant to care for, Thaia might not have time to play on an actual team for a while. “Even if that isn’t an option, there’s always pickup games going on in Guildhall Park.”

“Depending on living arrangements and your academic schedule, you playing on a team isn’t out of the question,” said Lexi, turning onto her back as they reached the middle of the pool. “You love skyball and I wouldn’t want to see you pass up the opportunity to play.”

“Yeah, but I love you more than skyball. And I’m pretty sure I’m going to love our kid more than skyball. Besides, eventually we’ll teach _her_ how to play skyball. Maybe I could coach her team when she’s old enough to join one.” Eagerness surged through Thaia at the idea. Yet even _better_ than simply playing skyball would be playing skyball with her bondmate and their kid. For a moment, she wondered why something that obvious hadn’t occurred to her before now. Then her rational voice—which sometimes spoke up even when math wasn’t involved—reminded her that she hadn’t been a bonded matron the last time anyone had brought up kids and skyball in the same conversation.

Lexi did a couple lazy backstrokes toward the other end of the pool, eyes closed. “From what I’ve seen with you working with Auri and Basya, you would be good at it. While you haven’t said as much, you seem to enjoy teaching in general.”

“Captain Rosava said something like that when she suggested I switch to the reserves and teach biotics part time to new apprentices at Armali’s training center.” Thaia opted for a side-stroke to catch up to a coasting Lexi. “I won’t lose the ability to push my biotics hard because I’d need to keep up with militia training and it’d be a flexible enough job that I can still attend my program at the university full time.”

“Is that what your discussion with her is about?”

“Yeah. We have to figure out details. Plus I need to meet with my advisor to determine my school schedule. Then I’ll have enough information to meet with the training center’s faculty to finalize my teaching schedule there.” Thaia began to tread water. “And then I’ll know for sure where I’ll be able to have our kid at work. Probably not at the training center, but research and teaching in my academic field should make it easy to bring her with me at the university. How’s it work for doctors and psychologists-in-training?”

“There shouldn’t be any trouble in classes, but she won’t be allowed in practicums due to confidentiality. The same goes for any hospital rounds. However, I don’t think we’ll lack in volunteers to watch her if we run into schedule conflicts.”

“Might have to fight my parents, sometimes. My mother liked to bring Auri and then Basya with her to work to show them off. My dad did the same thing. One time, Uncle Khel and I overheard them arguing over who got to take Auri to work and it was the stupidest argument either of us had ever heard and that’s over a thousand years of dumb arguments on Khel’s side. Then Eirian strolled in and scooped her up and was like ‘she’s mine today and we’re going to go appreciate the fuck out of some art’ and strolled right back out before either of them could react.”

“Hearing that story is strangely reassuring, though I’m certain my reaction is influenced by how great of a help they’ve been overall while you’ve been gone.”

“I’m glad they were.” But Lexi’s mention had Thaia observing her again as she calmly floated face-up in the water, the light illuminating the new curvature of her body. Then someone jumping into the pool—drawing complaints from others because there was a diving pool connected to the _kolbethra _for a reason—sent waves crashing through the water. They broke against Lexi’s side hard enough for the spray to reach her front. It successfully drew Thaia’s attention to Lexi’s tits and then she wondered how much extra buoyancy they’d give her when they started to get bigger. Or maybe they’d already started. She’d have to incorporate them as variables in her hydrodynamics equations.

Despite Lexi’s closed eyes, Thaia’s gaze must’ve been too intense because Lexi asked with a hint of a sigh, “I’m going to regret asking this, but what are you thinking about?”

“I was wondering if they’d gotten any bigger yet.” When Lexi finally looked at her, Thaia gestured toward the pair of tits in question to make sure Lexi knew exactly what she meant. “My conclusion is that I’ll need to conduct an extensive investigation to determine an accurate answer.”

Lexi audibly sighed and began to swim toward the pool’s exit located closest to the next area, where the paths to the two hot baths waited. “I’m having second thoughts about you leaving the militia and staying home.”

“You shouldn’t,” Thaia said, solemn because this was an important subject. “I’m good at these kinds of investigations. Well-practiced and well-praised. If necessary, I can provide written references.”

Wading through the hip-deep water next to Thaia, Lexi laughed. Then she reached out and brushed her hand along Thaia’s arm. “I did miss you.”

“Me or my mouth?” Thaia asked, sending a suggestive grin Lexi’s way.

Another laugh, followed by Lexi pushing her in the shoulder and sending her back into the pool with a splash. “Goddess, _both_.”

Thaia was smug and didn’t bother hiding it as they followed the path from the _balaneion_ that would ultimately bring them to either the _thalukros_ or _thalassa_. At regular intervals along the pathway, there were symbols set within the larger pattern of the floor tiles. Many people wouldn’t have recognized them for what they truly were—the subtle signs ancient huntresses had left along hunting trails—and those who did were either commandos or history scholars.

After Lexi commented on the design of a few of them, Thaia took it upon herself to explain what each meant as they walked past, including lesser-known facts such as which had been converted into hand signals commandos still used in the present day.

“It’s like another language,” Lexi said as they left behind the one indicating a split in the trail ahead.

“Only a little one.” Thaia used an Omegan hand gesture for impressed. “Not like Omega’s complicated dual-language thing.” Then she made the sign she’d seen most often during her time on Omega.

“I’m not opposed.” Lexi smiled and took hold of Thaia’s hand. “But I would like to experience the _thalassa_ first.”

“Those aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.”

Lexi’s answering hum went straight up Thaia’s spine to light a fire under her crest before racing downward to burn between her legs.

_Fuck_. This could get uncomfortable before it got comfortable if she underestimated Lexi’s interest again.

At the fork, they picked the path marked by the symbol for the sea, bringing them to the _thalassa’s _entrance. A bright holographic display lit up the wall next to the doorway when they approached.

Thaia read the holo-advertisement’s tagline out loud, dismay dulling her excitement. “The scent and light of eezo, without the eezo.” Openly frowning, she swept an arm toward the ad to draw Lexi’s attention to the source of her outrage. “It’s synthetic eezo! Saltwater and _synthetic eezo_. Why would someone replace the best part with a synthetic?”

“I’m sure species who aren’t inherently biotic appreciate baths free from carcinogens and the resulting sickness and death,” said Lexi, amused instead of outraged or even a little miffed.

“Right.” Thaia sighed. “Eezo is bad for basically everyone else in the galaxy.” Which was why only _thalassa_ on Thessia didn’t follow any eezo containment procedures—there wasn’t much of a point when the entire planet was essentially a big ball of bioavailable element zero that had given the galaxy the only inherently biotic sentient species that they knew of. But other species still had biotics even though the majority weren’t, so eezo shouldn’t have been dangerous to them. Except it weirdly was. Safira’s late salarian bondmate, Jirou, had been a biotic, but he’d had to take some kind of special medication whenever he was on Thessia. Thaia had wondered why he needed to, but unlike back then, she now knew someone who held multiple specialties in alien anatomy and would know the answer. “Babe, how do people from other species even become biotics if eezo kills them?”

Lexi provided an answer as she led them into the room. “Luck. Both in being exposed to eezo while in utero and then not subsequently dying from said exposure. In rare instances, the exposure causes the fetus to develop biotics rather than outright killing it. And that is how other species produce biotic individuals—largely through luck. Whether or not having a biotic child is good luck or bad is still up for debate amongst some species.”

“Damn.” So the surprisingly realistic scent of eezo that hit when they passed through the door’s threshold wouldn’t be reassuring like it was to asari. For Thaia, it was a reflection of home and comfort. When combined with the carved channel of the pool stretching toward the opposite end of the long, narrow room like the ancient reflection pools that stretched out in front of the Guildhall, Thaia was convinced enough for it to get her by until they went home to Armali. All that was missing was the buzz under her skin that accompanied close contact with eezo. She could experience that at the bay, though. Even when they weren’t in the water.

“You know,” Thaia said as they paused to ditch their towels, “since more eezo’s better for us, maybe we should live at the bay as much as possible until she’s born. My parents did that with me and my sisters and look how we turned out.”

Lexi dead stopped in the middle of removing her towel. “Do you really believe that’s a convincing argument? You literally got into a physical altercation with one of them earlier today.”

That callout was unnecessary. Uncalled for, in fact. Thaia rolled her eyes. “How our _biotics_ turned out. Something something the higher bioavailability of eezo affecting the development of stronger biotic potential in the asari nervous system.”

“Now there,” Lexi said with a smile, “is your convincing argument.” Then she slowly finished unwrapping her towel and dropped it into the laundry bin within arm’s reach.

Thaia knew that fucking tone from Lexi and there was still enough residual self-satisfaction from earlier for Thaia to immediately turn smug again. She even rocked on her feet after tossing her towel over several people’s heads to land perfectly in the laundry bin several meters away instead of the one right next to them. “If I use scientific terminology, I could probably talk you into anything. Or out of anything.”

After a lingering look that took in every centimeter of Thaia’s body, Lexi turned on her heel and walked toward the pool without a word.

“That wasn’t a no,” Thaia called after her, unabashedly admiring Lexi’s shapely ass as she slipped into the subtly glowing pool. Only once it was completely out of sight did Thaia follow, muscles immediately relaxing when submerged in the heated water. Not until now did she realize how sore she was from months in the field and she swam to one of the tiled benches lining the inside of the pool in want of a good soak.

As soon as she sat down, Lexi joined her by settling herself on Thaia’s lap.

“It’s presumptuous of you to immediately sit on my lap. Maybe I’d like to sit on yours,” said Thaia, moving her hands out of the shoulder-high water to trail their way up Lexi’s sides.

Lexi draped her arms around Thaia’s neck. “You would look ridiculous.”

“Babe, when has that ever stopped me before?”

Lexi leaned down and whispered, “Think about what your face is level with right now. Are you willing to give that up? If so, need I remind you how thoroughly annoyed you were when you couldn’t reach them on Aite?”

“I was.” Thaia lightly ran a thumb over a one of the nipples just in front of her face. Her tongue traced the same path long enough to relish the shiver drawn from Lexi and then she ran her hand downward because soaking in the bath didn’t mean they couldn’t catch up with each other in more ways. But Thaia’s journey along Lexi’s torso halted when she was transfixed by the small bump.

The whole concept was _wild_. They had a daughter growing in there. Momentarily diverted by her curiosity, Thaia traced delicate circles over the soft skin. “When will we be able to meld with her?”

Lexi opened eyes that had fluttered shut. “Not until the necessary neurons have finished migrating.”

Goddess. Thaia pressed a kiss between Lexi’s tits and then smiled up at her. “You are _such_ a doctor and I love you for it but not all of us have your encyclopedic knowledge of anatomy and physiology. How long will it be until those neurons have sufficiently migrated?”

She studied her for a moment. “Did you not pay attention in your biology courses in secondary school?”

“I did, but not much to the material we were supposed to learn.”

Lexi leaned back and folded her arms, tragically covering her tits.

Thaia sighed and rested her hands on Lexi’s hips. “The teacher was _stacked_, okay?“

“Another month,” Lexi said without hiding her laugh. “Another month and we can begin getting to know her.” She unfolded her arms and traced the tattoos around Thaia’s eyes. “That’s when your markings will begin to emerge, as well.”

“Do you think they’ll clash with the tattoos?” asked Thaia, tilting her head upward while doing her best to ignore the fire left in the wake of Lexi’s touch.

“Would it matter?”

“It’d be weird if Safira suddenly couldn’t stand the aesthetic of my face. Then again, I’ve never seen any commando with matron markings have clashing tattoos.”

“You’re missing the two most important components of this.” Lexi deposited a kiss on Thaia’s brow. “One, it’s how our daughter will quickly and easily be able to identify us amongst a crowd of asari. Two, _I_ will like them because they’ll be part of you.” When Thaia’s lips curled into a smile, Lexi claimed them with her own. The kiss swiftly turned hungry, the long months of dormancy awakened into an almost primal need to reacquaint herself with Lexi’s curves and really just Lexi entirely.

“I think,” Thaia said, separating their lips enough to speak, but close enough still that hers touched Lexi’s with every word she spoke and all she really wanted to do was take them again, “we should get to a private room before—”

Someone behind them cleared their throat. “You are _not_ on Thessia. The rules are different here on the Citadel. We’re in a multi-species environment.”

When Thaia turned, she discovered a short matriarch somehow managing to loom over them. “Sorry,” said Thaia, pretending there wasn’t a flush on her cheeks at the misstep. “We’ll, um, relocate?”

Exasperation was in the matriarch’s voice but it was accompanied by flashes of amusement in her amber eyes, posture relaxing as she regarded them. “It’ll have to be elsewhere, I’m afraid. We haven’t secluded rooms here.”

“Fuck.” Goddess, Thaia had never in her entire life gone astray of the rules in any baths until now and her cheeks might’ve been on fire.

“Not here, you won’t.” The matriarch sighed, but it was maybe fond. “Matrons. Worse than maidens, I swear. Go on, then. Get yourselves someplace private so you can get back to your fun.”

By the time they’d dried, changed back into their street clothes, apologized again, and left, the burning desire that had driven them to seek new environs had somewhat faded, though the warm hum of affection remained. But what mattered was that they were together and the rest could easily be rekindled later. Admittedly, Thaia was a little sad about having to leave the baths earlier than planned and she cast a longing look in the direction of the entrance. Then she sighed. “I doubt we’ll be welcome back.”

“Probably not, but I do have something better.” Lexi grasped her by the chin and turned her head to see the display she’d brought up on her omni-tool. “VIP tickets to Armali’s season-opener.”

Thaia grinned, wrapped her up in a hug, and spun her around in a circle. “Babe! You’re as lucky as Nef!”

“No, I'm far luckier.” Once her feet were returned to the floor, Lexi framed Thaia’s puzzled face with her hands and gently pulled her into a tender kiss. Then she whispered, “I have you.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Breathless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21789163) by [AlyssAlenko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssAlenko/pseuds/AlyssAlenko)


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